The German Jewish critic Walter Benjamin once wrote: “Memory is not an instrument for exploring the past but its theatre.” The theatre is a familiar medium for John MacLachlan Gray, who is the author of Billy Bishop Goes to War, one of the most popular Canadian musicals ever produced for stage. Billy Bishop garnered Gray the 1981 Los Angeles Drama Critics’ Award, the Governor General’s Award for drama and the Chalmers Canadian Play Award.
In more recent years, Gray has turned his hand to fiction. Not Quite Dead is Gray’s latest novel, after The Fiend in Human and White Stone Day, both of which were set in Victorian England and followed the adventures of journalist Edmund Whitty who, like a classic Dick Francis protagonist, was continuously abused (by others and himself) in both body and spirit. This time Gray has left Whitty at home to recover from his injuries and has moved the action to the New World, specifically...
Mark Frutkin’s most recent historical fiction is A Message for the Emperor (Véhicule, 2012), which takes place in Song Dynasty China. His novel Fabrizio’s Return (Knopf, 2006), set in 17th-century Italy, won the 2006 Trillium Award. He lives in Ottawa.
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