The Winnipeg Public Library files the trilogy under biography rather than fiction with good reason. It is not a novel - it is "history with conversation" as Josephine Tey describes an historical novel mentioned in The Daughter of Time. The extensive notes following the epilogue give references for most of the quotations from Nellie's speeches and books, including whether or not they are direct quotes or up-dated paraphrases.

Nellie's Victory begins with Nellie, a distracted mother of two toddlers and a baby, still managing to find time to write - advertisements for a drug company, a short story for Colliers magazine - just because she loves doing it. Living in the small farming community of Manitou, Manitoba, where her husband was the pharmacist, she witnessed the great harm that drunkenness did to the local families and became a stalwart (and vocal!) member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union. In spite of having several more children and a husband who was not physically very strong, she worked for, and extended the platform of, the WCTU to include many different aspects of women's rights: the right to be a "person before the law" (that petition had to go all the way to the Privy Council in Britain!); the right to own property; the right to humane working conditions (the description of her giving the premier of Manitoba a conducted tour of the sweat shops in the North End of Winnipeg is particularly vivid); and, finally, the right of women to vote and hold office. She wrote two best-selling novels and travelled about the province giving readings and speeches. She moved to Winnipeg when her husband gave up his pharmacy to begin selling real estate there, and she continued with her work for women. She did eventually sit in the Manitoba Legislature for one session!

Nellie McClung was a remarkable woman and a fine example of one of the first women to do the home-career balancing act that is so common now. She had a quick wit and was a compelling speaker, pulling crowds of up to a thousand people to hear her argue for prohibition and women's rights. Mind you, in a small piece of local color that is undocumented but only too believable, she was also expected to help with the coffee and goddies that finished off most of these meetings!

The book is full of interesting bits of information, but I found the hop-skip-and-jump approach to Nellie's life meant that I did not get as excited about her triumphs as I wanted to. In other words, it is a better biography than novel. I have, however, gone back and read the first of Crook's volumes and plan to pick up the second whenever I have the opportunity.

Recommended.