EVENT DATE: May 23, 2018
TOPIC: The Past is Present: Building on the Promise of Canada

Charlotte Gray is one of Canada’s best-known writers, and author of ten acclaimed books of literary non-fiction. Born in Sheffield, England, and educated at Oxford University and the London School of Economics, she began her writing career in England as a magazine editor and newspaper columnist. After coming to Canada in 1979, she worked as a political commentator, book reviewer and magazine columnist before she turned to biography and popular history.

Charlotte’s most recent book is The Promise of Canada: 150 Years – People and Ideas That Have Shaped Our Country. Many of her previous books have been best sellers and have won single or multiple literary and/or historical awards, and one was adapted and broadcast as a television miniseries in early 2014. In 2008 she published Nellie McClung, a short biography of Canada’s leading women’s rights activist.

Charlotte has appeared regularly on radio and television as a political and cultural commentator, and has been a panelist on CBC Radio’s program, Canada Reads. She has been a judge for several of Canada’s most prestigious literary prizes, and was short-listed as “Author of the Year” by the Canadian Booksellers Association in 2014.

Charlotte has been awarded five honorary doctorates and is an Adjunct Research Professor in History at Carleton University. She was the 2003 Recipient of the Pierre Berton Award for distinguished achievement in popularizing Canadian History. Charlotte is a member of the Order of Canada and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Charlotte lives in Ottawa with her husband George Anderson, and has three sons.