by Charlotte Vale-Allen

The story starts in the Toronto of the 1950's, where you could still swim at Sunnyside Beach and most women stayed home to raise their families. Here you will meet two unforgettable sisters--Faye and Louise Parker who, against all odds, survive the abuse of their angry and embittered mother, Maggie. But their lives are tragically altered when shy and sensitive Faye is the victim of a brutal and violent act.

Suddenly, the normally ebullient Louise is thrown into turmoil. On the brink of adulthood, she escapes to London to heal her wounds and follow her nebulous dreams.

My mother's reminiscences of her girlhood in Toronto inspired me to write of the city as I remembered it, growing up there in the 1940's and 50's. Hence, in this book, I've written about many places that no longer exist.

As always in my novels, I was concerned with relationships--in this case primarily between mothers and daughters--and basically with why people do the things they do, become the people they are. In the case of Maggie Parker, she is one of nature's inexplicable creatures, driven by motives that often defeat even her own comprehending. Her daughters, Faye and Louise, reflect--as do all children--the best and worst of their parents.

Thematically, throughout the book, I tried to demonstrate how each of the central characters has been affected by his or her parents/environment. And in the course of developing the characters, I dealt to some degree with issues pertaining to women's rights and to the very real ambivalence so many of us felt growing up as Canadian cousins to the profoundly influential Americans just across the border.

Having lived in England for several years in the early 1960's, I also incorporated aspects of London as I so fondly remember it. In writing such a lengthy manuscript I was afforded an opportunity to go into greater descriptive detail than I normally do: for example, the chapters describing the Canadian National Exhibition.

This book represented a highly enjoyable writing experience, one that allowed me to indulge in my lifetime love for the city of my birth.