by Joanna Jolly
I’m grateful to Jim Ross, Tony Kavanagh, Andrew Synyshyn and his colleagues for taking the time to explain the complexities of the legal case against Raymond Cormier. At the University of Guelph, Kate Puddister was an invaluable expert on Mr Big operations. From the University of Manitoba, Lorna Turnbull and Marnie Brownell provided useful background on child welfare in the province.
As a stranger to Winnipeg, I relied on the generosity of local journalists, in particular Gordon Sinclair, Nancy Macdonald, Brittany Greenslade, Katie Nicholson and Jillian Taylor. I want to say a special thank you to the CBC’s Caroline Barghout for her friendship and impressive investigative skills. Matthew Komus, Christopher Trott and Sandy Riley helped fill in my historical knowledge and Martha Troian provided research. Finally, I couldn’t imagine spending so much time in Winnipeg without the love, hospitality and home-cooking of my old friends, Sylvie Houghton and Mark Carriere.
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Writing this book has brought new Canadian friends. I’m grateful to Stephen Maher for his early support and introduction to Penguin and to Shannon Masters for sharing her experiences as an Indigenous writer—and for an awesome road trip across the prairies.
Red River Girl began life as a BBC story. I’m grateful to Micah Laidlow for her comment which became the spark that set the process in motion. I’m deeply indebted to David Botti and Lynsea Garrison whose brilliant, creative talents made Red River Women both an online and radio success, Paul Kerley for production, and my editors—Ben Bevington, Stephen Mulvey and Bridget Harney—for having the foresight to commission the story. At the BBC, Keith Blackmore was an encouraging mentor. I’m grateful to Michael Dwyer from Hurst Publishers for setting me on the road to writing. The Shorenstein Center at the Harvard Kennedy School provided a welcome respite from daily news and the chance to conceive of a longer project. I thank Tom Hundley and the Pulitzer Center for their financial support and the Royal Society of Literature Giles St Aubyn Award for Non-Fiction for their commendation.
At Penguin Canada, I would like to thank Diane Turbide for her wisdom and patience in guiding me through the process of writing. I’m extremely grateful to Alex Schultz for providing an intelligent and thoughtful copy edit. Here in the UK, Sarah Savitt at Virago gave much needed insight and encouragement. I feel extremely lucky to have the support of my brilliant and positive agent, Toby Mundy.
Writing is hard and I feel blessed to have many writer friends—Lisa Woollett, Jill McGivering, Ann Tornkvist, Solitaire Townsend and Minka Nijhuis—to sympathize with when times were tough. Thanks to those who read early drafts, especially Vibeke Venema, Claire Lowman and Simon Ponsford. And to the friends who held my hand, spirited me away and reminded me to laugh; Jake Morland, Ali McConnell, Mark Sainsbury, Stefan Kyriazis, Tara McKelvey, Sarah Faber, Teresa Clifton and all the swimmers in our “Daphne du Maurier” squad lane.
Finally I want to say a huge thank you to my family who saw me through the long days of writing. To my mother, Marian, who read everything, including my roughest notes, and told me how good they were even when they weren’t. To my father, Pran and his wife, Jenny, who kept me going. And to my wonderful sister, Anita, her partner, Ioan, and my nieces and nephew, Nel, Nona and Inigo—I couldn’t have done it without you.
