Mazo de la Roche

Photo courtesy of CM Magazine

Although she was "almost unknown in the UK," Christopher Fowler featured this Canadian writer in his Forgotten authors series in The Independent.

Mazo de la Roche was born in 1879 in Ontario, and published her novel Jalna at 48. She had two books when Jalna won the Atlantic Monthly literary prize and made her famous. A bestsellers in its time, this novel and its fifteen sequels formed the Whiteoak Chronicles, a saga spanning a century in the life of one family.

Although these books are not the usual boys' fare, I remember my brother enjoying several of them and talking about their characters. In particular, he spoke about Renny, who fights in World War I and eventually becomes master of the family home of Jalna.

For some reason, I never got round to reading this forgotten author; now I want to add her to my staggeringly long reading list. Whatever Christopher Fowler says, Mazo de la Roche is not entirely forgotten. Her hometown of Newmarket, Ontario has a public school named after her.