Heather Kirk is a Canadian author and retired college teacher. Seeking Peace: The Quakers is Kirk´:s seventh published book. It is her second book about an important non-violent resistance movement. The first was Be Not Afraid: The Polish (R)evolution, "Solidarity." (The first received excellent reviews.) Kirk´s other published books include two linked novels for young adults, Warsaw Spring and A Drop of Rain. These books are set in Canada and Poland. Kirk has also published several books about world-famous Canadian novelist, Mazo de la Roche, author of the Jalna series. For more information about Heather Kirk and her books, please see her website at www.heatherkirk.ca.

Seeking Peace: The Quakers is an exploration of one of the longest and most influential non-violent resistance movements in history. For 365 years, from 1652 to 2017, the Quakers have been both pacifists and activists, expressing their unique religious beliefs through concrete actions. By opposing all forms of violence and working for peaceful change, this little group, also called Friends or Religious Society of Friends, has consistently dedicated itself to altruistic service.

Without resorting to the weapons of war, the Quakers have fought for religious tolerance, for peaceful coexistence of nations, for improvements in prisons and mental hospitals, for abolishing slavery, and more. From the "Valiant Sixty" struggling to reform the Christian church, to William Penn creating the "Holy Experiment," to Levi Coffin heading the "Underground Railroad," the Quakers have done extraordinary deeds in centuries past.

In the modern era, as a collective group, they received the 1947 Nobel Peace Prize for their relief work in war-ravaged Europe. Several individual Quakers also received the Nobel Peace Prize. And Quakers influenced the development of Amnesty International, Greenpeace, Oxfam, and the United Nations. . . . Heather Kirk takes the long and varied history and makes it easy to read. Enjoy the brief biographies, "family-tree tales," jokes, quotes, "geographies," and almost 100 illustrations.

Why rewrite Wacousta? First published in 1832, Wacousta is a classic tale of the ‘Indian Wars’ of 1763 and the attacks on Fort Detroit and Fort Michilimackinac. The novel is marvellously plotted and authentically detailed but the original prose bewilders modern readers. This new ­version is not only a great read but a balanced account of the Pontiac Uprising. The heroes are both white and aboriginal.

Judged against Walter Scott's historical romances or James Fenimore Cooper´s frontier romances, Wacousta is wondrously complex and enigmatic.
 John Moss
 Reader´s Guide to the Canadian Novel

I struggled through the original Wacousta for a university class. This ­version is a breath of fresh air.
 Heather Butt
 Heritage Services Representative
 Windsor, Ontario

A good novel that deserves a modern audience.
 Bob Garcia
 Fort Henry Project Historian
 Parks Canada

Be Not Afraid is an introduction to the Polish non-violent resistance movement, "Solidarity." As distinguished British historian Timothy Garton Ash has explained: Solidarity was the icebreaker for the end of the Cold War.

Solidarity involved ten million people over a period of ten years. It freed Poland from Soviet domination. It contributed greatly to the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989 and to the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. It killed precisely no one.

Be Not Afraid takes a complex topic and makes it accessible. Jokes, poems, and songs provide refreshing and illuminating pauses in the narrative. Brief, imagined eyewitness accounts arouse interest. Almost 100 archival photos document this almost unbelievable story.

Heather Kirk offers new sources for the fictional Whiteoak family in the world-famous Jalna novels by Canadian author Mazo de la Roche. The Whitesoaks were modelled on an ingenious combination of close relatives of de la Roche and her cousin and life-long companion Caroline Clement. What´s more, the Whiteoak´s estate, Jalna, was based on a combination of several large properties owned by these relatives in York and Simcoe counties.
For the sources of the Whiteoaks and Jalna, biographers would have looked beyond Halton County where de la Roche and Clement lived for a few years when they were in their thirties. They also should have looked beyond Peel County where de la Roche and Clement stayed for a few seasons when they were in their forties. De la Roche´s knowledge of rural life came primarily from the people and places of her childhood and youth.