Frances Backhouse

Her love of travelling and writing has taken Frances Backhouse all over the world. After obtaining a degree in zoology from the University of Alberta, Frances spent her time writing in the winter and working as a park naturalist in the summer. Looking for more adventure, she traveled to Malawi, Africa, to teach geography and biology at Lilongwe Secondary School. Upon returning to Canada, Frances landed a job studying grizzly bears in the Khutzeymateen Valley and later studied seabirds on the Queen Charlotte Islands.

Despite all her adventures in nature, Frances now enjoys being a full-time professional writer with a passion for Canadian history. She is the author of Hiking with Ghosts (Raincoast, 1999) as well as of the bestselling Women of the Klondike, which was reprinted by Whitecap in a 15th anniversary edition. The companion book, Children of the Klondike, was published in 2010. Frances’s work can also be seen in magazines such as British Columbia Magazine, Canadian Geographic, The Beaver, Canadian Living, and many others.