By Steve Hubrecht
Local author Maureen Thorpe is launching the fourth book in her popular series of time travelling novels.
Thorpe has been a literary flurry since releasing her debut novel, A Tangle of Time, in 2019. That tale introduced Columbia Valley readers to a young midwife named Annie Thornton (Thorpe’s main character), who learns she is a hereditary witch, and ends up time travelling back to a 15th century manor house. A Tangle of Time was well received which prompted Thorpe to continue writing at a furious pace; since her first novel, she’s turned out two sequels and a separate murder mystery. On Thursday, Nov. 30 she’ll add to that when her latest work, All the World’s a Stage, hits book shelves. That’s a staggering five books published in three and a half years, if you’re keeping track – a torrid rate considering that she took five years to write the first novel.
The author will be at the annual Invermere Christmas Craft Fair this weekend and at an author signing event at the local book store, Four Points Books, later this month to promote her latest book.
All the World’s a Stage continues Annie Thornton’s time travelling exploits. After Annie’s 15th century experiences in A Tangle of Time, she next found herself in Viking times in Sailing to Byzantium (Thorpe’s second novel) and then in Roman Britain circa 300 A.D., in Coventina’s Well (Thorpe’s third novel).
Thorpe took a break from the time-traveling genre when she published a novella — Murder in the Market — this past summer. As the title suggests, it’s a murder mystery and is loosely based on Thorpe’s experience as a vendor and the downtown Invermere Farmers and Artists Market.
But now Thorpe is back to writing about Annie Thornton, this time sending her protagonist to 1600s London.
“That’s William Shakespeare’s time, and he is one of my favourite writers of all time. So I really wanted to write him into one of my books,” explained Thorpe, adding she loves to visit the Globe Theatre any time she’s in London. (The original Globe was built by Shakespeare’s playing company in 1599.)
Thorpe’s crew of characters, Annie, her Aunt Meg and two characters from Roman Britain, decide they need to time travel on vacation to 1600s London to investigate recurring visions one of them is having of a particular building.
“What I keep trying to do in the book is show what it was like in 1600s England,” Thorpe told the Pioneer.
The time period certainly offers an intriguing setting: Queen Elizabeth the First was on the throne, trade and commerce were increasing, creating new opportunities, and the theatre world was burgeoning. Many of London’s theatres at the time were located on the ‘wrong’ (south) side of the Thames, which was also a hotbed of gambling, prostitution, crime and other dubious-yet-no-doubt-thrilling pursuits. The infamous street gangs of 1600s London were terrorizing the city. The gangs — along with several other genuine historic characters — including Shakespeare, the notorious pickpocket and underworld figure Mary Firth, and Queen Elizabeth herself — appear in All the World’s a Stage.
“London (at the time) was bursting at the seams. It was tumultuous and it was smelly. There was incredible privilege, and incredible poverty, and all sorts of rogues,” said Thorpe.
Annie and friends arrive with a purse of silver coins, obtained on previous time travels, to help pay for their century-shifting vacation, and swiftly find the London gangs hot on their tails, seeking the silver. At the same time, they become embroiled in solving a mysterious murder.
“I loved writing this book, and I loved writing Shakespeare as a character,” said Thorpe. (Spoiler alert: the Bard ends up joining the band of would-be detectives in their quest to figure out the crime.)
“It some respects it was easy to do, because there are so many descriptions available of what Shakespeare was actually like,” explained Thorpe.
The author’s love of Shakespeare comes through in other ways. Astute readers will find the plot very loosely based on MacBeth, one of the Bard’s most famous plays. And there are other Shakespeare-related bits and bobs throughout All the World’s a Stage.
“If you know Shakespeare, you’ll pick up a lot in this book,”said Thorpe. (For instance the book title, All the World’s a Stage, is in fact a quote from a Shakespeare’s comedy, As You Like It).
Thorpe also had great fun writing the character of Mary Frith (perhaps better known as Moll Cutpurse)
“She was quite the woman. She was a famous pickpocket in the 1600s, and she would cut people’s purse strings, which is how she got her nickname,” outlined Thorpe.
Frith went to court several times and upset the sensibilities of the time by wearing men’s clothing and smoking a clay pipe (making her possibly the first woman in England to openly smoke). She bred mastiffs and kept parrots, and once rode a horse across London to win a bet and in so doing, caused a riot (because she was, as usual, dressed in men’s attire). “She ended up being quite rich in her old age,” said Thorpe.
Thorpe originally hails from Yorkshire, England. She worked as a public health nurse in Toronto, before coming to the Columbia Valley in 1995. In the valley she continued her nursing career, working with the Akisqnuk First Nation for ten years, before retiring to a ‘second career’ as a yoga teacher and running coach. She’d always loved writing as a kid, so decided on a ‘third career’ as a writer, sparked by joining a writer’s group while snowbirding in Florida.
She explained to the Pioneer that her earliest attempts at writing — when she was a kid — never took off because every time she started a story she would instead become engrossed in making the planned book’s illustrations (usually of a pony) to the detriment of completing the text.
You can catch Thorpe at the Christmas Craft Fair on Friday, December 2 and Saturday, Dec. 3 at the Columbia Valley Centre, or at the author book signing at Four Points Books on Sunday, Dec. 8.
To find out more visit maureenthorpe.com.
