CALEB NICKERSON
CLARENDON Dec. 17, 2019
The Little Red Wagon Winery in Clarendon was packed on Dec. 17 for the launch of . . .
a book on a local farming woman.
This is Marjorie: Taking the Lion’s Share was a labour of love for Bristol resident Bill Smith, as the biography traced the life and times of his mother Marjorie.
“The idea’s been around for a while and I finally got down to it,” he said, noting that he had conducted several interviews with his mother prior to her passing away in September 2018.
Smith solicited input and anecdotes from his family members for the tale, and said that his mother’s diary also proved an excellent resource for putting the book together.
“They were very good to respond,” he said. “It really helped, it adds variety.”
A former high school English teacher, he said this was his first attempt at writing something this expansive.
“It took me most of this year,” Smith said. “I started working on it in January and the manuscript was finished by August.”
He said that he enjoyed the challenge of writing the book and said that genre of biographies appealed to him.
“They led ordinary lives, but boy, did they ever lead them in a full way,” he said. “All of us admired mom for that.”
“Biography I like, I like the idea of following people’s lives and seeing what happens, especially people who aren’t in the news,” he continued. “You don’t have to be in the news to be important to a lot of people.”
Copies of the book are available from Smith himself (wilyelmside@hotmail.com) or from Burnstown Publishing House’s website.
