Prairie

The Walker family emigrated from England to Canada in 1883. This memoir was penned by a daughter of that family, christened with the unusual name of ‘Prairie’.


‘... They called her ‘Prairie Violet’ because she was the first white baby born on the prairie in North West Manitoba... ’


Prairie had not yet been born at the time when many of the events she recounts took place. She learned of them from her father, ‘The Doctor’.  During the long winter nights, snowed in on the remote prairies of Canada, this intrepid Englishman would have entertained his family with tales of his adventures.  The author retells them in so much lively detail that it is easy to imagine her and her eight siblings clustered at his knee in the firelight begging, ‘Tell us those stories again, Papa!’


These fascinating recorded fragments give us a glimpse into a bygone era,  describing a pioneering lifestyle that is utterly alien to most of us. One can only admire the determination and character of those who struggled to survive in the harsh and beautiful wilderness of nineteenth century Canada.