âItâs an autobiography! If I tell you whatâs in it you wonât read the book.â â Claire Drainie Taylor
Or would you? Maybe youâd be intrigued by the progression of a life begun as an unexceptional little girl born to a middle-class Jewish Canadian couple in a small prairie town who, at age sixteen, married a refined Englishman, and survived the Great Depression, partly alone in a shack in the woods of Vancouver Island. Or how, only a few months after returning to Vancouver, with no training and minimal education, this same young woman walked on stage at one of Canadaâs finest old theatres, and went on to a successful thirty-year career as an actress and radio dialogue writer.
Having been compelled by her family to write her memoir, it wasnât until sheâd finished and reread her manuscript that Claire Drainie Taylor realized what an extraordinary life sheâd led. Her descriptions of the many fascinating incidents that make up her story, and how she dealt with them, revealed herself to herself in a way that illuminates what she calls âThe Surprise of My Life.â