A rare insight into the intimate thoughts of Mazo de la Roche, and the private life she normally kept hidden. The author confesses how strongly she connected with her character Finch Whiteoak, her struggles with wanting to be a boy, and her complicated relationship with her cousin and adoptive sibling, Caroline.

In 1927, Mazo de la Roche was an impoverished writer in Toronto when she won a $10,000 prize from the American magazine Atlantic Monthly for her novel Jalna. It became an immediate bestseller. She went on to publish sixteen novels in the popular series, about a Canadian family named Whiteoak living in a house called Jalna. She created unforgettable characters who come to life for her readers, but was secretive about her own life and tried to escape the public attention fame brought.

• Introduction by Heather Kirk 
  


• Ringing the Changes 


• Prologue 


• I. Maternal Forebears 


• II. Paternal Forebears 


• III. Very Young Days 


• IV. Secret Play and Separation 


• V. Adolescent Pleasure and Pain 


• VI. The First Flight 


• VII. Clipped Wings 


• VIII. The Long Years 


• IX. The Changeful Years 


• X. Three Against the World 


• XI. We Two Left 


• XII. Jalna 


• XIII. Whiteoaks 


• XIV. Setting Sail 


• XV. Seckington 


• XVI. The Rectory 


• XVII. Canada 


• XVIII. The Cliffs and the Heath 


• XIX. The Winnings 


• XX. Whiteoaks - The Play 


• XXI. Farewell to the Winnings 


• XXII. Life in Windsor and a Trip to America 


• XXIII. Change