THE DEFENDER: Cecily Ross
Cecily Ross is an award-winning journalist and author based in Creemore, Ontario. After 12 years as a writer and editor at The Globe and Mail, she is currently freelancing and writing fiction.
Her first novel, The Lost Diaries of Susanna Moodie, (HarperCollins Canada, 2017) is a fictional look at the life of one of Canada’s most beloved pioneers. Cecily won a Gold National Magazine Award in 2008. Her writing has appeared in The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, ON Nature Magazine, Canadian House and Home, Zoomer, Chatelaine, The New York Times and The National Post.
Her 2005 memoir, Love in the Time of Cholesterol, published by Viking Canada and McGraw-Hill in the U.S., was widely acclaimed on CBC Radio and in the national press. Her short fiction has appeared in literary magazines.
In addition to her career at The Globe and Mail (in the Style, Arts, Focus and Books sections) Cecily has worked as an editor at Maclean’s, Chatelaine, Harrowsmith and The Cobourg Star. She writes on a variety of subjects including relationships, design and décor, real estate, nature and the environment, food and travel.
Cecily attended York and Trent Universities and graduated with an honours degree in English Literature.
THE BOOK: The Wars by Timothy Findley
Robert Ross, a sensitive nineteen-year-old Canadian officer, went to war – the War to End All Wars. He found himself in the nightmare world of trench warfare; of mud and smoke, of chlorine gas and rotting corpses. In this world gone mad, Robert Ross performed a last desperate act to declare his commitment to life in the midst of death.
The Wars is quite simply one of the best novels ever written about the First World War. (Goodreads.com)