2025 Best Canadian Series

“Michelle Cyca (left) is one of the 13 BC-based authors featured in The Best Canadian Series 2025 that showcases essays, poetry, and short fiction.FULL STORY

John Grain

August 27th, 2024

This historical fiction novel, The Silver Pocket Watch: A British Home Child’s Journey (Tadpole Publishing $24.95) honors the children affected by the British Home Children Program, which sent over 100,000 children to Canada as indentured laborers between 1869 and 1939. The story reimagines the life of the author, John Grain’s grandmother. The story follows Winnie Ormsby, who struggles to raise her infant niece, Millie, in Victorian London’s slums. After a series of tragic events, Winnie marries Captain Thomas Turtle. But their children are kidnapped and sent to Canada by a spiteful family member, where they face many years of forced child labour. Central to the story is a silver pocket watch, a family heirloom symbolizing their enduring connection. 9780973863437

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