Living off the Grid

Wildwood, by Elinor Florence

by Liz Treacher, Author

Do you ever long for a simpler life? Could you live off the grid? Canadian author, Elinor Florence, explores this in her novel Wildwood (Dundurn Press, 2018).


I met Elinor this summer when she came to Brora to do some research into her Scottish ancestry. Her forefathers sailed from Orkney to work for the Hudson’s Bay Company and married Cree women. This connection to the Cree people inspired Elinor to write about how Indigenous peoples helped the first pioneers to survive, sharing their food, their shelter and their knowledge of the wilderness. 


Molly Bannister, accountant and single-mother, is struggling with her life and her finances when an inheritance from a great aunt arrives like a bolt from the blue. But there are strange conditions attached to the will. In order to inherit a farm and run-down homestead in northern Canada, Molly and her daughter have to live on it for a year. The story charts what happens when Molly throws caution to the wind and accepts the challenge. She has to cope with the snow and ice of Alberta and the challenge of a house without heating or running water, not to mention the wild animals living in the forest.


With the inclusion of an old diary from an early pioneer which splices through the story and reflects Molly’s own adventures, the plot moves from past to present in both an intriguing and satisfying way. Florence’s evocative descriptions of Alberta are beautiful. Wildwood celebrates the wilderness of Canada and feels like a hymn to the land itself.

Liz Treacher is a writer and teacher based in Dornoch. Her two romantic comedies (The Wrong Envelope and The Wrong Direction) are set in 1920 and tell the story of an impetuous artist and his determined post lady. Both titles are available to buy from Dornoch Bookshop.