Friday 12 November 2010

Quebec City or, simplement Québec: a Mixed Heritage

Quite by accident Elin, Jeanne and spent last night just up the hill from the Quebec Literary and Historical Society, at the end of the Chausée des Écossais and not far from St. Andrew's Church. This remnant of the Anglophone presence has been going since 1824. Its library, shown here, contains books from the first publicly funded library in what would become Canada, set up by Govenor Frederick Haldimand in 1794. The collection also contains many more recent books: it now is the only English language library in Quebc City.

About 15 years ago, I had the pleasure of talking about one of my books in the library. The Society invited me shortly after my historical novel The Words on the Wall: Robert Nelson and the Rebellion of 1837 was published. It was nice to show Elin and Jeanne around before we went down the hill to the Musée de la civilisation for a presentation where the music and the text recited were from 18th century France.

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