About the Book    Mary Burpee (nee Kennedy) was born on an Alberta homestead. As a child she was fascinated by the stories her father told her about growing up in Dublin and Bantry.
   Her life-long interest in her Irish roots, fostered by the stories her father told and furthered by some interesting genealogical discoveries, was the compelling force behind Ebony Angel.
   Ebony Angel is a historical novel set in 19th century Ireland. The main characters are fictitious. Some of what happens to them is not. The beautiful, head-strong, horse-loving protagonist rails against the harsh and unfair laws heaped on Irish Catholics by their English rulers. For generations those laws fostered a hatred of anything English - a force that has been like bubbles bursting in a pot of porridge. In Ebony Angel those bursting bubbles shatter dreams, destroy lives. It is a page-turner with an unusual twist. Its sequel, Shades of Ebony, is in the works.

About the Author    As a farm wife, mother, helpmate and writer, Mary Burpee´s life has been busy, challenging, sometimes exhilarating, but never dull. She raised Arabian horses, rode regularly on cattle drives, and was outrider on the wagon trek commemorating the duel contenaries of Moose Jaw and Saskatoon. She made friends with musk oxen (some ate from her hands), saw foals being born, trucked grain from combines, and watched the aurora borealis dance across the midnight sky as deer grazed alongside her grain truck.
   Mary Burpee has traveled widely, including several visits to Ireland. Her travelogues are said to be "as good as being there." For nearly fifty years her stories and articles have appeared regularly in many papers and periodicals, including the magazine Canadian Geographic. Her two non-fiction books Musk Oxen of Gango (2003) and Horses Around My Heart (2004), and novel Ebony Angel (2007), are being read and enjoyed by a wide variety of readers - school age to seniors.