At two minutes to six on December 27th 1908 the lives of three people become inextricably bound together by the trajectory of a snowball. There is ten-year old Dunstable Ramsay; his 'lifelong friend and enemy' Percy Boyd Staunton; and, Paul Dempster prematurely born when his pregnant mother is struck by Percy's icy missile.
Robertson Davies was born in Thamesville, Ontario, in 1913. A novelist, playwright, literary critic and essayist, he received numerous awards for his work. It is as a writer of fiction that Robertson Davies achieved international recognition, with such books as The Salterton Trilogy (Tempest-Tost, Leaven of Malice and A Mixture of Frailties); The Deptford Trilogy (Fifth Business, The Manticore and World of Wonders); The Cornish Trilogy (The Rebel Angels, What's Bred in the Bone, shortlisted for the 1986 Booker Prize, and The Lyre of Orpheus); Murther & Walking Spirits, and The Cunning Man. Robertson Davies died in 1995.
