Far Horizons is
the most true-to-life of the three books; it was inspired by the letters
exchanged between my great-great-great aunt and uncle. Allan MacDougall asked
Harriet Campbell to marry him in 1819, on the eve of his departure for Canada
from Scotland. This meant he was asking Harriet to wait for his return sometime
in the future, and when his father learned about this he felt it was
dishonorable and forced Allan to set Harriet free, although he pledged to
remain constant himself. It would be seven long years before they were
reunited, and Far Horizons is about
what happened while they were apart.
One of Allan’s letters that has been passed down through my
family begins with the sentence: ‘How can I account for the long silence on
your part…’ and I was intrigued by it,
wondering why Harriet had not written. Far
Horizons imaginatively answers that question!
The following two volumes in the trilogy, Another Country and A
Distant Shore, depart from family history as I take the MacDougall and
Campbell families to far-flung places, from Boston to Hong Kong to Burma. It’s
been great fun writing their stories, and although the trilogy is complete I
foresee more Emigrants books in my future!
I hope you enjoy the trilogy. Do you like books that are
based, even loosely, on real events of people?
Happy Reading,
Kate
2 comments:
these sound wonderful
and, I do like fact-based fiction stories.
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