The Hippies Who Meant It

by Seymour Hamilton, Shirley MacKenzie (Illustrator)

Overview

The HIPPIES WHO MEANT IT takes readers through the life experiences of young people within the hippie / back-to-the-land culture. The story takes place in 1960s Nova Scotia, which like many other Canadian regions, attracted young Americans who chose to head north rather than go to Vietnam. The characters, after harrowing experiences in their own histories, come together to make a life for themselves. The characters seek escape, solace, self-discovery, personal growth, and new beginnings in which to make peace with their pasts, and find their place in life. This they must do against a backdrop of the Vietnam War, social change, survival and family issues, injustice and prejudice, the emotional impacts of war, and the burden of self-expectations. The characters evolve, heal, and navigate the joys and challenges of their new surroundings, facing love, death, fear, friendship, betrayal, and despair. The twists and turns of the main characters' journeys are often unexpected, surprising and sometimes humorous as they weave toward an unconventional resolution.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780994949936
Publisher:	Colophon
Publication date:	04/27/2022
Pages:	386
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

I was born in England in 1941, during an air raid. My father was a British naval officer, my mother a singer from New Zealand. In 1949, we immigrated to Canada. After acquiring degrees in English literature, I taught at Canadian universities and then worked as a writer/editor for government and industry. I retired in 2003, and shortly after completed The Astreya Trilogy which I had begun many years earlier. All three volumes were published by Fireship Press, Tucson, Arizona in 2011. Next I wrote The Laughing Princess, a collection of 12 interrelated stories that concern dragons. It is beautifully illustrated by Ottawa artist, Shirley MacKenzie, and first published under the imprint Colophon in 2016. Back in the 60s, I was a little too old to be a hippie, but I visited folk who lived on the North Mountain of Nova Scotia in those years, and have kept in touch with some of them. For them (but not about them) I wrote The Hippies Who Meant It, published under the imprint Colophon in 2016. In 2020 I returned to the world of The Astreya Trilogy to write River of Stones, a stand alone story which takes place 20 years after the conclusion of the Trilogy. Then as a lockdown project during the Covid pandemic, I wrote Angel's Share, a novella set in the same world, chronologically a century before the Trilogy. It is a stand alone story that is also an introduction to all five books. It was published under the imprint Colophon in 2020. Ellie continued the saga three years after the close of River of Stones. It was first published in 2021.

Shirley MacKenzie was born in Halifax Nova Scotia in 1959, and by 1961 she was adopted away from her family of origin. .Leaving Nova Scotia in 1965, Shirley lived and schooled most of her life in Montreal and Ottawa. She studied Arts Plastique in Montreal, and Museum Studies in Ottawa, earning two diplomas.