I’m very excited about the release of my latest novel Tea at the Empress in September. Although it is the sequel to my last book House of Crows, it reflects a different time and very different sensibilities, and can be read on its own.
Tea at the Empress chronicles the life of Maggie’s daughter, Edith. Unlike the previous three generations in House of Crows, Edith is very much a child of the twentieth century. She’s a suffragist and a flapper and works for Victoria’s newspaper, the Daily Colonist. The novel spans the period between the outbreak of the First World War, known as the Great War, and the fall of the stock market in 1929.
It follows two timelines in Edith’s life – her pivotal experiences as a teenager and young woman, and then, thirteen years later when she is faced with the consequences of the past which she thought had been buried forever.
The novel is very much about being a mother and all the joys and sorrows that entails. My own mother died while I was writing it and I want to dedicate Tea at the Empress to her. She never got to read the novel and I miss her honest and enthusiastic critique. I believe she would have loved this story although none of the mothers in it were anything at all like her. She was the best mother ever.
