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Paper Bird cover

  • eBook Edition
    • 978-1-4602-6660-1
    • epub, mobi, pdf files
  • Keywords
    • Great Depression,
    • childhood,
    • England,
    • United Kingdom,
    • 1930s,
    • parades,
    • working class

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Paper Bird
An English Childhood of the Great Depression
by Jan Truss


Paper Bird is a collection of childhood memories from award-winning author Jan Truss. Born in 1925 in Stoke-on-Trent, England, by the time Jan was six years old the Great Depression had arrived, forever altering her life. These stories are a vivid glimpse into a changing world, a grand tour of a different era. They are also an invitation to tour the backstage, the psychological theatre of events and emotions that later enriched the characters in Jan’s novels and plays. The stories are set between 1930 and 1936, and follow the breakdown of a young girl’s world and her ultimate survival as a tough eleven-year-old on her way to higher education. Jan Truss has carried these stories with her into her ninetieth year on the planet – choosing to share them now. She still lives in the countryside deep in the rolling hills of Alberta, Canada. * * * You can also download Jan’s wonderful interpretation of these stories on CD Baby or iTunes. The stories were recorded some years ago at the Banff Centre, on a fine autumn day, high in the Canadian Rockies. This book and the recordings are a collaboration between Jan and her daughter Sally who served as editor and producer of the project.


“A wisp of a girl was running, running, her head full of paper whistling birds, and a rag-and-bone man was calling.”


Jan Truss photo

Jan Truss Award winning author Jan Truss taught literature, art and music to students in Canada, before she began her own writing career. In 1972 she won the Search for an Alberta Novelist competition for Bird at the Window. A Very Small Rebellion, her second novel with its companion play for youth followed in 1977. Her novel Jasmin won the prestigious Ruth Shwartz Award in 1983. Her other works include the novels Summer Goes Riding, Red, and Peter’s Moccasins. Her short stories have appeared in such magazines as Redbook and Chatelaine, on CBC radio, and in several collections – Kitchen Talk being one. Jan is also a playwright and librettist: Ooomerahgi O, Cornelius Dragon, and A Very Small Rebellion all pleased numerous audiences. Jan Truss lives in the foothills near Water Valley Alberta, in the long shadows of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Download the recording of author Jan Truss reading Paper Bird. Available now on iTunes and CD Baby. Sally V. Truss, Editor/Producer Sally readily admits that growing up with an author for a mother was influential in her career choices! This project, Paper Bird, combines her skills in publishing and recording, with her love of storytelling. The idea to edit this collection and produce the recordings of Jan’s stories was conceived while she was working at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies in Banff. Many years later she is pleased to be able to share Jan’s childhood stories. Sally lives in Calgary Alberta, where she is currently executive director of This Is My City Art Society.


Contributors

Author
Jan Truss
Editor & Producer
Sally V. Truss


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