Barbara Kerslake with Northrop Frye and wife Helen at cottage

Here is a photo my friend Barbara Kerslake was generous enough to share with me. She's about 7 here, Frye considerably younger than most of us think of him. Barbara's grandfather was the well-known artist C.W. Jeffreys. And yes, Barbara's legs are still that long!

Frye is a character in my new book Queen of Unforgetting. My protagonist, the beautiful ambitious grad student, Mel Montrose, persuades him to supervise her thesis. Her area of interest is Jean de Brebeuf, the 17th century Jesuit who came to Huronia, now Simcoe County, to convert the Indians. Much of my story takes place in Midland, Ontario and nearby Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, the reconstructed mission/fort.