My mother’s hat collection gave me the idea to host a Fancy Hat Contest for the launch of my new historical novel, Finding Flora.
Welcome to Letters From Windermere, where I write about:
I’m in the home stretch of preparing for Finding Flora’s book launch on April Fool’s Day! My first event will be held here in Invermere, British Columbia, followed by FIFTEEN more book events in April and May. I do hope to see you at one of them. See my schedule here: Events.
It’s been a busy few weeks. I’ve ordered new business cards, bookmarks, and a standup banner to use behind my signing table. I have emailed multiple invitations to my contact list, and I’ve been interviewed for several online and newspaper stories.
If you live in the Columbia Valley, please note that I’m hosting a Big Fancy Hat contest for my first book launch, so consider yourself invited! I’ll award a prize to the biggest and best hat.
The photo above is my granddaughter Quinn, wearing a velvet hat I picked up at a thrift store. I wish it were fashionable for little girls to wear hats, because doesn’t she look adorable?
Hats were especially popular during the era in which my novel is set in 1905. Women trimmed their hats with all manner of feathers and furbelows. I wrote a post here about the dress customs of the day: What Homesteaders Wore.
Mum kept a big box full of old hats, and when people came to her house for tea parties, they had to wear one of them. My mother was a borderline hoarder of Interesting Old Things, and after her death in 2017 I inherited them. Read more here: Family Memories.
I inherited about three dozen hats, plus I had some of my own. Now my grandchildren enjoy trying them on, and once in a while I find an occasion to wear one myself. Here’s just a small sample of my many hats.
My oldest (and possibly ugliest) hat is this one, worn by my grandmother Veronica Scott when she married my grandfather Charles Light in Radisson, Saskatchewan on January 8, 1920. That makes it 105 years old! Modelled here by my granddaughter Juliet, it is brown velvet, with orange circles on the brim adorned with blue beads. I remember dressing up in this hat when I was a kid, so it has great sentimental value. Sadly, no photos exist of the blushing bride back in 1920.
I wore this hat to my brother’s wedding in 1985, which makes it 40 years old. I sewed matching polka dot dresses for my daughter Katie and me, and I still have my pink dress, but her little blue dress was given away. The hat made another appearance at my brother’s twenty-fifth wedding anniversary celebration!
Here it is modelled by my granddaughter Nora.
This is the weirdest homemade hat in my collection, modelled by grandson Jack, which my friend created out of a hunting duck decoy and a woollen toque back in 1978. I wore it to some crazy party when I worked as a farm reporter for the Red Deer Advocate. He claimed to be a member of a fictional organization called Mallardism International.
This little royal blue pillbox modelled by granddaughter Juliet is a hat that came from Eaton’s Department Store in 1963, along with a matching blue coat. I was twelve years old when I wore this outfit on my first trip to visit family members in Banff, Alberta. Jackie Kennedy was famous for her pillbox hats, and coincidentally it was on that visit when we heard the news on television that President Kennedy had been shot. I remember being so shocked when my unflappable mother burst into tears.
This leather tam belonged to my husband in the 1960s, when he was a teenager during the 1960s in Berlin, Germany. (I tried to persuade him to wear it for a photo, but he wouldn’t be caught dead in it now.)
Juliet is almost overwhelmed by this enormous floppy hat, the size of a small umbrella!
Heaven knows how this crocheted tam with a marijuana plant on the top ended up in my mother’s hat collection. She probably thought it was just a pretty design!
No information is available about this fetching little number modelled by Nora, which someone decorated with red tulle. Was it part of a costume?
My mother had several of these wedge caps in her hat collection, purchased at a garage sale. I searched online and discovered that Cream of the West Flour was made by Maple Leaf Mills, and the roots go back over 100 years. The product was particularly popular in Newfoundland. The company was acquired by Robin Hood in the early 1990s and then shut down. I assume these caps were worn by their employees.
This one might actually be worth some money. I bought it myself at the SOS thrift store in Parksville, B.C. (one of my favourite haunts) because I liked the high crown — it’s so Audrey Hepburn! When I arrived home, I discovered a Holt Renfrew label saying Made in Italy and googled it to find similar hats priced between $50 and $200. I can just picture some movie star wearing a hat like this, along with big sunglasses.
This is the most beloved of my hats, because my mother knitted it for me when I was 23 years old, which means it is now fifty years old! It is the perfect size and shape for my head and I wear it every winter.
To keep those vintage hats from flying away, women used hat pins to anchor them to their hair. In older books, you sometimes find references to a woman using a hat pin to defend herself . . . and if you look at the size of these lethal weapons, you can see why.
This is my newest hat, a burgundy straw that I bought on the beach in Mexico last month with the intention of turning it into a thing of beauty for my book launch. I haven’t decorated it yet, but you will see the after photo in next month’s newsletter on April 16!
Please keep checking this page on my website, as more events will be added along the way: Events.
And do come wearing your biggest and best hat!
Preorder in advance at any of these bookstores, or from your own favourite bookstore.
6:30-8:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 1: Pynelogs Cultural Centre, Invermere, B.C. Big Fancy Hat contest, Homemade Scone contest, author reading and book signing. Cash bar. Co-hosted by Four Points Books.
7-9 p.m. Wednesday, April 2: Owl’s Nest Books, Calgary, AB. Doors open at 6:30 and author reading will begin at 7 p.m. sharp. For info: 403-287-9557.
12-4 p.m. Thursday, April 3: Indigo Signal Hill, Calgary, AB. Book signing.
1-5 p.m. Friday, April 4: Chapters Chinook, Calgary, AB. Book signing.
2-4 p.m. Sunday, April 6: Audreys Books, Edmonton, AB. Book signing with fellow author Genevieve Graham.
12-4 p.m. Tuesday, April 8: Indigo Sherwood Park, Sherwood Park, AB. Book signing.
12-4 p.m. Wednesday, April 9: Indigo North Town Centre, Edmonton, AB. Book signing.
1-3 p.m. Saturday, April 19: Café Books, Canmore, AB. Book signing.
7-9 p.m. Thursday, April 24: Huckleberry Books, Cranbrook, BC. Author reading and signing.
12-4 p.m. Saturday, April 26: Four Points Books, Golden, BC. Author reading and signing.
12-4 p.m. Saturday, May 3: Coles Tamarack Centre, Cranbrook, BC. Book signing.
12-4 p.m. Monday, May 12: Coles Cottonwood Mall, Chilliwack, BC. Book signing.
6:30-8:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 14: Black Bond Books, Vancouver, BC. Author reading and book signing.
2-6 p.m. Friday, May 23: Book Launch and Garden Party at the author’s home, 581 Nassau Crescent, Qualicum Beach, BC. Co-hosted by Mulberry Bush Books. Chat with author, book signing, refreshments. Come and go as you please!
2-4 p.m. Saturday, June 22: Book Launch and Tea Party at Our SPACE, the historic schoolhouse at 4684 Beach Avenue, Peachland, BC. Hosted by Peachland Arts Council. Author presentation at 2:30 p.m. Admission $5, refreshments.
Apples Never Fall is just one of many novels by bestselling Australian author Liane Moriarty, who comes up with the most innovative plots for her domestic thrillers. Some of them have been adapted for movies, including Big Little Lies and The Husband’s Secret. This is the story of a couple who are adapting to retirement when the woman goes missing, and all four of their adult children (each with his or her own issues) wonder whether their father might have had something to do with it.
Friends, have I inspired you to dig out your favourite hat? If so, send me a photo! Or better yet, wear it when you come to one of my book events. You can expect my next newsletter on April 16, when I’ll share photos taken along the book trail. Until then, may the warm winds of spring bring better days ahead. Fondly, Elinor
