Canada from the Wild Side

“The dear forest home which I had loved in spite of all the hardships which we had endured since we pitched our tent in the backwoods. It was the birthplace of my three boys, the school of high resolve and energetic action in which we had learned to meet calmly and successfully to battle with the ills of life.” Take a moment and imagine moving from the crowded and busy streets of London to the widely undiscovered Canadian outback – not today but in 1832. In her autobiographical novel, Canada From the Wild Side, Susanna Moodie (1803–1885) allows us to get an insight into the life of an English settler in Canada, which is filled with experiences of beautiful nature and hard work, prejudices and friendships, homesickness and familiarisation. Her collection of sketches, embellished with detailed descriptions, takes you along on an individual journey and guides you through her settler experience, allowing you to leave your assumptions behind and time travel to the early eighteen hundreds.