
'Okay God, say what you like, but I damn well wish I could get away just sometimes by myself. But no. It’s a criminal offense, nearly. What makes any of them think they’ve got the right to tell me, own me, always have me there.’
Margaret Laurence was a Canadian novelist and short story writer.
She is considered to be one of the major figures in Canadian literature and was a founder of the Writers’ Trust of Canada, a non-profit literary organisation that seeks to encourage Canada’s writing community. Her early novels were inspired by her time living in Africa with her husband from 1950–57. Laurence’s following novels are set in her native Canada and include The Stone Angel, A Jest of God, and The Fire-Dwellers, the latter making the longlist for The Lost Man Booker Prize. Later in her career, Laurence focussed her time on writing children’s stories.