W is for Vanessa Winn

July 22nd, 2020

Vanessa Winn’s first historical novel, The Chief Factor’s Daughter (TouchWood, 2009) imagines the world of a real-life Métis woman, Margaret Work (who lived in Victoria in the mid-1800s just as the gold rush was getting underway). Following in a similar fashion, Winn’s second novel Trappings (Oakheart Press $24.95) carries on re-creating colonial Victoria life, this time through the younger Work sister, Kate. Trappings also takes place primarily in Victoria, but includes other places as well and the time period is the aftermath of B.C.’s gold rushes. Married at 18, Kate has a difficult family life. Her home, Point Ellice House (a present day National Heritage Site), is put at risk by her husband’s business speculations and their lives become intertwined with the political power struggles between Victoria and New Westminster. Kate knows little of her husband’s family in Nova Scotia or the reasons they fled its ruling elite. Of more concern to Kate is that she must face the laws and ambitions of men to protect her only legacy — her daughter. 978-1-7770408-0-2