The Surprise of My Life: An Autobiography (Life Writing, 5)

“It’s an autobiography! If I tell you what’s in it you won’t read the book.” __— Claire Drainie Taylor__ Or would you? Maybe you’d 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 Canada’s 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 wasn’t until she’d finished and reread her manuscript that Claire Drainie Taylor realized what an extraordinary life she’d 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 “The Surprise of My Life.” "Maybe you'd 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 cultured 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 Canada's finest old theatres, and went on to a successful thirty-year career as an actress and radio dialogue writer, pausing along the way to divorce her first husband and marry John Drainie, the man who was to become Canada's most beloved actor, and, incidentally, father to her six children. And you're almost certain to be moved by the loving, sensitive (and sometimes humorous) way she narrates his two-year losing battle with cancer. Claire Drainie Taylor ends her memoir with a brief glimpse of the outstanding Canadian film entrepreneur who became her third husband."--Jacket MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict Contents 6 Foreword 10 Acknowledgements 12 Author's Note 14 The Beginning 16 Swift Current 24 And All the Other Places 54 Vancouver—First Marriage 64 Rock Bay 86 John Drainie Makes an Entrance 100 Life with John 136 And the Children Came ... and Came ... and Came 184 Interlude 243 The Final Stretch 247