Drawing from her mother's diaries, letters, newspaper columns, fiction, and historical works in English and Dutch, Marianne reconstructs Madzy's upper-middle-class childhood and youth in Holland before World War II, her struggle to keep herself and her small children alive during the war, and her emigration to Canada with her family in 1947. In addition to describing Madzy's participation in historic events, Marianne also explores her mother's inner life. Frontiers and Sanctuaries is most powerful in showing how Madzy's lively, creative temperament allowed her to adapt to war, a new language and culture, pioneer life, and crippling rheumatoid arthritis.

Marianne Brandis was born in the Netherlands in 1938 and came to Canada in 1947. After earning her BA and MA from McMaster University, she worked in radio and taught at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (now University) before becoming a full-time writer. Most of her work has a historical element. She is the author of award-winning historical fiction and has also written biography and memoirs. Pursuing her interest in the relations between people and their surroundings, she has researched and written about Toronto's ravines, environmental and social issues in Malawi, and urban design and planning projects in her current hometown of Stratford, Ontario.

Marianne Brandis' profile page