It all started with an R.H. King Collegiate class of ’61 reunion: 26 women meeting 30 years after their graduation. Siggins was struck by their wide range of fascinating life stories. These, after all, were the women who were born during the war, had come of age in the ’60s, and were changed by the women’s movement of the ’70s. They had all stood at the forefront of one of the greatest revolutions in history  the emancipation of half the human race.Inspired by that reunion, Siggins set out to write the life stories of her classmates, using the emerging themes from these intense dramas as a gateway to explore women’s lives throughout history. The result is a compelling series of personal journeys linked by nothing less than an absorbing cultural history of women in the Western world, from antiquity to the present.A book that speaks powerfully to people of all ages  and especially those of “the cusp generation”  In Her Own Time is an inspiring, informative and wholly entertaining read.

In her own time: A class reunion inspires a cultural history of women

Politics & Social Sciences

Siggins, Maggie

Social Sciences

Harpercollins

Riel: a Life of Revolution

Highly acclaimed for its fresh, intimate portrait of one of Canada's most enduring -- and most misunderstood -- legends, Maggie Siggins' Riel: A Life of Revolution has become the reading choice of Canadians everywhere. Rich in texture and detail, illuminating in its revelations of the people and events who molded the charismatic rebel, Riel: A Life of Revolution is a truly remarkable picture of a man and his time.

Riel: A Life of Revolution

Biographies & Memoirs

Harpercollins Canada

Published to widespread critical acclaim, Riel: A Life of Revolution proved that an intimate and revealing portrait of one of our most enduring ―and most misunderstood―legends could be an almost instant national bestseller. -Who is Louis Riel?’ Maggie Siggins asks, and comes up with some fascinating answers. Seen by many as an unrepentant traitor, a messianic prophet and a pathetic tyrant, Siggins uncovers the real Louis Riel―a complex man full of contradiction and angst, a charismatic visionary and poet, a humanitarian who gave up prestige and wealth to fight for the Métis people.
Infused with atmosphere and detail, this fascinating portrait is illuminating in its accounts of the people and events that moulded the enigmatic rebel. Revealing a man passionate about forging an equitable and just relationship between native and white people, Riel: A Life of Revolution is more relevant today than ever before.

Riel Re-Issue

History

Harper-perennial

Canadian Tragedy Joann and Colin Thatcher a Story of Love and Hate

True Crime

Bantam Books of Canada Ltd

Marie-Anne: The Extraordinary Life of Louis Riel's Grandmother

Compulsively readable, this first social history of the opening up of the Canadian West is a triumph of historical detective work and gives us Siggins at the top of her game. While researching the biography of Louis Riel, Maggie Siggins became aware of a figure lurking in the background who had had a profound influence on the great Canadian reformer. This was his grand-mother Marie-Anne Lagimodière, née Gaboury. As Siggins’ research progressed, she came to regard Marie-Anne as the most exceptional Canadian woman of the nineteenth century. The perils of Laura Secord and Susanna Moodie paled in comparison, yet she remains largely unknown. Beautiful and rebellious, Marie-Anne was still unmarried at twenty-five — unheard of in 1800s Quebec habitant society. Furthermore, once she did marry Jean-Baptiste Lagimodière, she insisted on accompanying her fur trapper husband to the uncharted wilderness of western Canada. The year was 1807, and no European woman had yet ventured west of the Great Lakes region. For the next thirty years, she would live among the native people or at fur-trading forts from Pembina to Edmonton House, leading an undoubtedly difficult life but one with freedoms unknown to women in western societies of her time. Drawing from primary sources, Siggins paints a vivid portrait of life in the West, from survival on the plains and bison hunts to the tribal warfare triggered by the fur-trade economy. Through it all, Marie-Anne survived and thrived, living to ninety-six, the matriarch of a large and diverse family whose descendants still live in Manitoba.

Americas

MCCLELLAND STEWART

Compulsively readable, this first social history of the opening up of the Canadian West is a triumph of historical detective work and gives us Siggins at the top of her game. While researching the biography of Louis Riel, Maggie Siggins became aware of a figure lurking in the background who had had a profound influence on the great Canadian reformer. This was his grand-mother Marie-Anne Lagimodière, née Gaboury. As Siggins’ research progressed, she came to regard Marie-Anne as the most exceptional Canadian woman of the nineteenth century. The perils of Laura Secord and Susanna Moodie paled in comparison, yet she remains largely unknown. Beautiful and rebellious, Marie-Anne was still unmarried at twenty-five — unheard of in 1800s Quebec habitant society. Furthermore, once she did marry Jean-Baptiste Lagimodière, she insisted on accompanying her fur trapper husband to the uncharted wilderness of western Canada. The year was 1807, and no European woman had yet ventured west of the Great Lakes region. For the next thirty years, she would live among the native people or at fur-trading forts from Pembina to Edmonton House, leading an undoubtedly difficult life but one with freedoms unknown to women in western societies of her time. Drawing from primary sources, Siggins paints a vivid portrait of life in the West, from survival on the plains and bison hunts to the tribal warfare triggered by the fur-trade economy. Through it all, Marie-Anne survived and thrived, living to ninety-six, the matriarch of a large and diverse family whose descendants still live in Manitoba. From the Hardcover edition.

Emblem Editions

When this book was first published in 1985, it became an instant bestseller and the basis for the popular CBC-TV series “Love and Hate.” It’s easy to see why, when this true story reads like a crime thriller. Colin Thatcher was a golden boy, growing up the son of Saskatchewan’s Premier Ross Thatcher. But as he rose to political prominence and to a seat in the Saskatchewan cabinet, his marriage to JoAnn, the mother of his three children, began to unravel, amid rumours of infidelity and of domestic violence. His children disappeared; his estranged wife was shot at through her kitchen window, but Thatcher denied any knowledge of either incident and defied the law (and his old legislative buddies) again and again. The law wrung its hands, until JoAnn was finally bludgeoned to death in the family garage. At last, Thatcher had gone too far. In a dramatic trial in Saskatoon that involved every major legal figure in the province, he was found guilty of murder. At that point, Maggie Siggins’s 1985 book was published. But the story was too big to end there. In his Edmonton jail, Thatcher stayed in the news by publishing his memoirs and exciting the media with news of dramatic new evidence that would prove his innocence. It never appeared. He was eventually moved to a minimum-security jail in British Columbia, and seemed to be living a fairly good life. Nonetheless, though his three children grew up believing in his innocence, rumours continued to fly around the Regina underworld about him. In October 2000, Thatcher was the subject of a trial to see if he deserved early parole. Maggie Siggins was present, and this book gives a full account of the trial and of what has happened to all of the actors in this incredible case during the last 15 years. • Now updated, with coverage of Colin Thatcher’s recent parole hearing • Television series based on the book was a hit on both CBC and NBC • Maggie Siggins is an experienced and articulate journalist, who won a Governor General’s Award for her book Revenge of the Land

A Canadian Tragedy (Revised): JoAnn and Colin Thatcher: A Story of Love and Hate (Revised)

Review\nWinner of the Regina Book Award 
A Globe 100 Selection for 2005\n“This is a people-centred history. . . . [The community’s] stories form the core of this book, and give it an emotional impact that is seldom seen in archive-based histories.” 
— Globe and Mail\nFrom the Trade Paperback edition.\nJuly 14, 2003: Flin Flon lawyer Michael Bomek pleads guilty to six counts of sexual assault on young Cree men, some of whom come from the community of Pelican Narrows. His crime is emblematic of white culture’s assault on this Rock Cree community. On the one hand, he was a dedicated lawyer who won 75 per cent of his cases for his native clients. On the other, he was an unthinkably corrupting influence.\nFor over 200 years, Pelican Narrows has endured an equally torturous relationship with the encroaching European culture, from the Hudson Bay factors and missionaries of earlier times to the bureaucrats and police of today. By scrupulously researching the history of a community she has known for much of her life, by using oral history and documenting the personal stories of contemporary Pelican Narrows Cree, Siggins gives us the human face behind the newspaper headlines of native issues. Her storytelling powers are formidable and the portrait she gives us of this single Saskatchewan community is unforgettable.

Bitter Embrace: White Society's Assault on the Woodland Cree

July 14, 2003: Flin Flon lawyer Michael Bomek pleads guilty to six counts of sexual assault on young Cree men, some of whom come from the community of Pelican Narrows. His crime is emblematic of white culture’s assault on this Rock Cree community. On the one hand, he was a dedicated lawyer who won 75 per cent of his cases for his native clients. On the other, he was an unthinkably corrupting influence. For over 200 years, Pelican Narrows has endured an equally torturous relationship with the encroaching European culture, from the Hudson Bay factors and missionaries of earlier times to the bureaucrats and police of today. By scrupulously researching the history of a community she has known for much of her life, by using oral history and documenting the personal stories of contemporary Pelican Narrows Cree, Siggins gives us the human face behind the newspaper headlines of native issues. Her storytelling powers are formidable and the portrait she gives us of this single Saskatchewan community is unforgettable. From the Hardcover edition.

Revenge of the Land: A Century of Greed, Tragedy, and Murder on a Saskatchewan Farm

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Siggins, Maggie. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Siggins, Maggie

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Siggins, Maggie. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

In her own time: A class reunion inspires a cultural history of women

Riel: A Life of Revolution

Riel Re-Issue

Canadian Tragedy Joann and Colin Thatcher a Story of Love and Hate

Marie-Anne: The Extraordinary Life of Louis Riel's Grandmother

Marie-Anne: The Extraordinary Life of Louis Riel's Grandmother

A Canadian Tragedy (Revised): JoAnn and Colin Thatcher: A Story of Love and Hate (Revised)

Bitter Embrace: White Society's Assault on the Woodland Cree

Bitter Embrace: White Society's Assault on the Woodland Cree

Revenge of the Land: A Century of Greed, Tragedy, and Murder on a Saskatchewan Farm