Chatelaine Guest Stars In This Must-Read New Novel
Doris Anderson is Chatelaine’s most iconic editor. During her tenure at the magazine, she published articles on birth control, sexism, abortion and divorce and more—during a time when these issues were far more contentious.
So when Heather Marshall, bestselling author of Looking for Jane, was plotting her just-released novel, Liberty Street, she knew exactly where one of her heroines—an enterprising young journalist investigating alleged atrocities at a Toronto women’s prison in 1961—would work.
“I just wanted to celebrate Doris Anderson and what she had done; hiring women and giving them journalistic freedom,” says Marshall, who first learned about Anderson’s impressive legacy from reading her 1996 memoir, Rebel Daughter, as part of an independent study course during her undergrad. “Chatelaine was wildly ahead of its time.”
As part of the research for her novel, Marshall interviewed two of Anderson’s contemporaries—Adrienne Clarkson, the former governor general of Canada who once wrote book reviews for Chatelaine, and award-winning journalist Michelle Landsberg, who worked at the magazine in the 1970s. (Landsberg told Marshall that one of the best parts of the job was the snacks on offer courtesy of the Chatelaine Test Kitchen, a perk we continue to enjoy today.)
“There was, on one hand, a traditionally feminine vibe to the office—the nice clothing, the Test Kitchen, the focus on domestic life,” says Marshall. “Yet, these were women that were working outside the home, earning pay and totally bucking the trends of their time.”
Liberty Street by Heather Marshall, $27
Marshall’s research on both Chatelaine and the notorious real-life Andrew Mercer Reformatory for Females resulted in a dual timeline page-turner, following an editorial assistant named Emily Ratcliffe as she embeds in a women’s prison in 1961, and Detective Rachel Mackenzie, who is investigating female remains found in an unmarked grave in 1996 while dealing with her own family trauma. The novel is full of shocking twists and turns across both timelines, which eventually find a common thread in the Mercer. But the most shocking element of all is that much of Emily’s storyline is based on real life, including the seemingly bogus bill that she uses to get sent to the prison—and the atrocities she uncovers once she’s inside.
What Marshall calls the Mercer Women’s Prison is largely based on the Mercer Reformatory, which operated from 1880 to 1969 in Toronto’s Liberty Village. (Liberty Street, as Marshall notes in the book’s afterword, was named for the fact that it was the first street prisoners would walk down when they were released.) Women were sent to the Mercer for a variety of reasons both criminal—drug use, prostitution—and not. Women with mental health conditions were also sent there, as were those who were deemed “incorrigible” under the impossible-to-believe Female Refuges Act.
The Act, in place from 1893 to 1965, allowed for women aged 15 to 35 to be imprisoned for up to two years for a variety of so-called incorrigible behaviours, from unwed pregnancy to chronic curfew breaking. “My jaw dropped multiple times reading through it,” says Marshall. “The parameters of the act, and the fact that these women didn't have to have committed a crime—it was just subjective... misbehaviour based on the social mores of the day.”
Also jaw-dropping is the horrific treatment that Mercer’s inmates experienced, a story that—in real life—was broken by the Toronto Star. Aside from enduring deplorable conditions and physical abuse, inmates were used for medical experimentation. After a massive riot at the prison in 1948 sparked a slew of media attention and a grand jury investigation, it was eventually razed.
While Emily—who up until this point has lived a very privileged life—initially infiltrates the Mercer to research what she hopes will be a career-defining story, her reasons for exposing the atrocities committed within the prison evolve as she gets to know her fellow inmates. Both Emily and Rachel's storylines ricochet to a satisfying but bittersweet ending. Does Emily eventually get her byline? You’ll have to read the book to find out.
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Maureen Halushak is the editor-in-chief of Chatelaine. Outside of work she's an avid runner, writer, reader and dog walker.
