"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.