Following the war, the couple moved to Thetford Mines, Quebec. As a mother and housewife, she began writing fiction as a hobby, and won the Ryerson Fiction Award twice in the 1950s for her novels Pine Roots in 1956[2] and The King Tree in 1958.[1] She also served for several years as editor of Canadian Bookman & Quarterly, the quarterly trade publication of the Canadian Authors Association.[3]
Following her divorce from Lorne at age 50, Taylor moved to Alberta.[4] With few immediate opportunities for work, she placed a classified advertisement to promote her services as an editor. She received a response from a man who was launching a new magazine, Western Leisure, and became an editor and investor in the magazine,[4] eventually buying out her partner and serving as the magazine's publisher. She then expanded her business by acquiring a network of community newspapers, including The Wheel and Deal, the Rocky View Five Village Weekly, the Carstairs Courier and the Airdrie Advance.[1]
In 1977, she went on a driving tour in Australia, publishing the memoir Alone in the Australian Outback in 1984;[4] the book formed the basis for the 1992 film Over the Hill.[5] In 1987, she published Alone in the Boardroom, a memoir of her experience as a woman in business at a time when that was still a relative novelty.[6]
Taylor's fifth book, Valinda, Our Daughter, was published in 1993. The book tells of the EgyptAir Flight 648 hijacking, with a focus on one of the Canadian passengers.[9]
Taylor died on May 31, 2015, in Airdrie, Alberta.[10]
References
^ abc"Albertan writes book on women in business; Author has gone from washing towels to heading publishing company". The Gazette, January 26, 1987.
