Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
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author
Shelagh Meagher
Shelagh's life has been happily unplanned. Canadian by birth but global by nature, she has lived in England, Switzerland, the United States, and—most memorably—Italy. She and her family spent seven...view moreShelagh's life has been happily unplanned. Canadian by birth but global by nature, she has lived in England, Switzerland, the United States, and—most memorably—Italy. She and her family spent seven years in Milan eating very well, soaking up beauty, and embracing Italian culture in all its crazy, non-Anglo-Saxon glory. Their adventures in renovating a dilapidated Ligurian villa are chronicled in the blog www.godzillavilla.com.
Among many other unplanned aspects of her life, her career has included success in advertising, marketing, and landscape design as well as writing. It's safe to say she has eclectic interests.
Shelagh’s first published work was a landscape design book, The Spirit of the Garden, published by Stoddart Press in 1995. Unique at the time, the book featured exclusively local Ontario gardens, beautifully shot by the renowned John de Visser, rather than the usual English gardens impossible to replicate in our less hospitable climate. The whole project was a wonderful excuse to toddle around exploring fantastic private spaces in the company of a great photographer.
Pearls in the Ashes began as an adventure - a happenstance that seems to be a common theme in the author's life. Ever since she first saw Omar Sharif in Ghengis Khan, Shelagh longed to travel across Mongolia’s steppes on horseback. It took several decades for her to achieve that goal, but the journey led to discovering the incredible history that inspired the story.
Shelagh and her family currently reside back in her home town of Toronto, where she continues to plot more adventures.view less