The Nine Lives of Charlotte Taylor Paperback – International Edition, February 12, 2008

My aunt and I were doing our ancestry on ancestry.com when we learned that we are related to Miss Charlotte Taylor. She is my great great great great great great grandmother on my father side of the family. I have to be honest, I’ve only read a little but it is amazing so far and I can’t wait to finish it. I am so proud to be related to this amazing woman and I hope her story is shared because it deserves to be.

This can be viewed as creative non-fiction or historical fiction as it is based on a true person. The writing was engaging and interesting as I didn't know anything about the pioneers of the Nova Scotia area. If you like history and/or genealogy, you will definitely like this book. Our creative non-fiction writer's group used it for discussion and a learning tool to improve our own writing.

The author is a descendant of her subject, who is portrayed with lively warmth in her late eighteenth-early nineteenth century setting. How Charlotte got from the Caribbean to Canada required ingenuity on the writer's part, and her subsequent efforts to settle and thrive along with her children are engaging reading, rather like a northern, feminine, and sociable Robinson Crusoe. Armstrong handles relations with the Native people, the Miq-Maq, with a warmth of feeling and sense of justice that the reader instantly sympathizes with, but that was clearly not part of the historical context at the time of settlement. Charlotte's notions of what she, as a woman, is able to do, physically, legally, and socially, challenge the ideas of that time, and chime happily with what we believe today. While the book is a good yarn well told and has general appeal, it is of particular interest to those interested in the history of settlement on Canada's Eastern seaboard and a woman's view of it.

My cottage is across the river from where Charlotte built her final homestead home, where it still stands today (the Wishart house). Now, when I watch the sun set over her house on a warm summer eve, I have so much more to contemplate. "My God Charlotte, did you really go through all that?" What a woman! What a story! A Maritime epic.

I loved Charlotte. She was a poineer woman to be admired. Her strength, wisdom, forsight and determination was why she lived so long under horrendous conditions when so many died young or returned to their home country and why she raised so many children again under horrendous conditons to adults without any deaths. Sally Armstrong descirbed the era impecibly and put you into the scene with all the pain, joy and frustrations of the pioneer. Her relationships with her husbands that she seemed to fall into because of circumstances to improve her life was not soppy but the relationship with the Mi'qmac seemed so natural and intense. (I hope this part was true!) The research into the archives and land registrations was very interesting and gave you a sense of the wildness and disorganization of a new land. Very Canadian and very well written. I recommend it to anyone!

I found this book to be fascinating. I read it shortly before a trip to New Brunswick, and specifically an area of he province where the book is set. This helped set the scene for my trip. It is historical fiction, but seems to be well researched. Charlotte Taylor was the first white female settler in New Brunswick, so it's based on an actual person. Sally Armstrong worked with archival material about Taylor (a distant relative) to bring the story to life. Taylor had a difficult, but rewarding life, with plenty of adventures. I was quite pleased with the book.

I didn't want to miss a word of this historical novel, especially since it was based on a real person. Author Sally Armstrong's ancestor, Charlotte Taylor, had to have the stealth of a cat to live the nine lives that she was given. Charlotte was a pre-Loyalist pioneer in New Brunswick, formerly part of Nova Scotia. Each adversity Charlotte overcame made her stronger. It was a hard life but she worked and fought for her large family her whole life. What vivid insight into the daily management of a pioneering woman.

Really wonderful Canadian book! I learned a lot of information about the east coast that I didn't even take in school.....great read!

What a well told story of courage and willingness to jilt the system. Lots of interesting information about the times she lived, living conditions in West Indies and Canada and the mores of the native Canadian population. Great sense of the dangerous situation in which they lived.Some questions remain: Did she know what love was? Did she marry for protection? Did her children have any idea of family ties or loyalty?

If you want to read an amazing historical story based on fact, this is it! It covers the long life of Charlotte Taylor who was born into a wealthy British family, but in her early adult life, travelled on a sailing vessel to Jamaica and from there to Canada in its infamcy as a colonial country. It's an inspiring tale of a woman who had to battle to raise her large family in harsh conditions. Once started, you won't want to put it down!

an amazing Canadian story, based on actual history. the author has blended historic accounts with beautiful and captivating fictional inserts that leads to a novel hard to put down! An amazing insight into the lives of early Canadian settlers on Canada's east coast.

As my family roots are in NB and I've spent a lot of time there, this was of particular interest for that reason alone. Charlotte was one remarkable woman; no matter how much poetic license was taken. She was 50-100 years ahead of her time in terms of the position of women in society. I do wonder why she made several of the choices she did. Obviously Wioche was the love of her life and really she should have stayed at the first settlement where she was truly happy. Maybe she couldn't bring herself to defy conventions to that extent.Her journey to Fredericton from the Mirimachi on snowshoes is amazing. Her ability to stand up and demand her rights as a woman and a landowner are more than admirable. We read about it, but I still find it hard to fathom just how people lived under those conditions. These are the poeple we have to thank for this country of ours.For anyone interested in the history of Northern New Brunswick and of a truly amazing woman, this book is highly recommended. That said, I did feel the latter parts of the book moved too quickly and jumped all over the place introducing so many new characters that it was impossible to keep track of them.

What a great read. Sally Armstrong tells a wonderful tale of daring adventure.I learned about Charlotte Taylor while I was working on the Urquhart branch of my own family's genealogy (see pg 371). My Ancestry DNA pages include many matches to Charlotte's descendants, some of which I have been able to trace back through marriages to my Urquhart kin. I wanted to learn more about the Elizabeth, the Blakes, William Wishart Jr, and the Hierlihys. It turns out that some of my cousins are descended from Elizabeth Williams & Duncan Robertson, through their daughter Christine, who married John Lancaster, and whose son, John, married my 2nd great-aunt aunt Harriet Maloney.My father's grandmother, Ellen Urquhart, who had been raised in Tabustintac in the mid-1800s, had so filled his head with tales of Tabustintac that he often spoke with reverence about that little village in New Brunswick and even once made the trek to Old Home Week.Having read The Nine Lives of Charlotte Taylor, I find myself wanting to go to Tabustintac myself, and to stop at Burnt Church along the way.I have already recommended this book to a few of my cousins, and I will be spreading the news to as many more as will listen.