When she was writing Gold Diggers, her 2011 book about the Yukon Gold Rush, Gray lived in Dawson City for three months. 

“Landscape became almost another character in my book as I realized just how menacingly beautiful it was — the extraordinary sunsets, the giddy experience of the longest night,” she says. 

Gray’s love of Canada and its geography took some time to fully flourish. A native of Sheffield, England, she came to Canada in the 70s at the invitation of a friend from university. Unfortunately, her six month stay coincided with a classic Ottawa winter. 

“It started snowing on the 1st of May and I said, ‘I can’t stand this climate’ and bought a ticket home,” she laughs. “I didn’t realize that a sort of switch goes on about the 12th of May and the country transforms itself.” 

Today, Gray still calls Ottawa home, and is still fascinated by the question of what makes Canada work as a country given its size and regional differences. She often finds insights into that question in the lives of the people who operated outside the halls of power.

“[When I’m writing a book], I’m always answering my own questions; I’m not really thinking about who’s the end user of this product,” she says.