Matthew J. Maguire
Categories: Male Authors - Anglophone Authors - Novelists - Authors of Non-Fiction - Fundy Coast
Biography
I was born in Lorneville, near Saint John, in 1998. I went to Harbour View High School. My family is mostly Irish in terms of its ancestry and part of it comes from Northern Ireland as well. But we have lived in NB for about 200 years. I have some American Loyalist ancestry as well. Both of [these lineages] have influenced my writings, as I have always had a deep love of history.
My first book was called The Struggle for Canada: Canadian Confederation. [It is] a non-fiction book about how we developed as a nation from responsible government to the so called "years of instability" after Sir. John A. Macdonald's death and the election of 1896. It also has little bios of each Father of Confederation at the back of it. I published it in 2018 when I was just 19 years old.
The other non-fiction book is called The Jacobites: Two Kings: One Crown. It's about the struggle for the British crown from the Glorious Revolution of 1688 until the death of Bonnie Prince Charlie's brother, Henry, in Rome, in 1807. This book was published in 2020 when I was 22 years old.
As for fiction, so far, I have done two out of six books on a Mountie called Rusty. It starts when he was adopted by some Mounties in Western Canada in 1873 and he's raised by them during the first book called The Littlest Mountie 1873-1877. The next book is called Corporal Rusty, in which he's a young man and a full corporal in the Northwest Mounted Police from 1878-1886. All of these books are just a series of short stories. [They] were both published in 2020.
How has New Brunswick influenced your work?
NB has influenced my work by providing me with some context for my books. [I] wrote extensively on the Fenian raids in my Confederation book and how NB reacted to the idea of joining Confederation in 1867 – both because of the Fenian raids and other factors.
What is your favourite New Brunswick book, and why?
I found that a lot of non-fiction books on NB political history were very helpful for my Confederation book, as was the NB library system in general.
What do you consider to be the highlight of your career so far?
The main highlight of my writing career so far has been the fact that I have been able to sell my books locally. But more importantly to me, personally, has been that I have been able to have them included in the NB library system so that everyone in NB can enjoy my books wherever they live in NB.
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Featured Publication |
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The Struggle for Canada: Canadian Confederation (2019) |
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Find this author in the New Brunswick public libraries catalogue.
Source(s): Author.
