Writings by Charlotte

Essays and Video

Interview with celebrated British author Robert Macfarlane, winner of the Weston International Award for a body of nonfiction, after his speech at the Royal Ontario Museum on 18 September 2023. Interview begins at 18 mins.
The Chappell Great Lives Lecture Series: Alexander Graham Bell
University of Mary Washington, North Virginia, USA, 2 February 2016
“Creative Non-Fiction”: the best of both worlds
Talking to the Dead

Articles by Charlotte

Untoward, the Last Spike
(LRC review, Jan-Feb 2024)
Painful Demise is Bad News For All of Us
(Globe and Mail, August 10, 2023)
The Watchmaker’s Daughter
(WSJ review, May 3, 2023)
Door Stopper, A Historical whodunnit
(LRC review, May 2023)
After the Miracle
(WSJ review, April 14, 2023)
Canadian History was overdue for a rewrite
(Globe and Mail, March 4, 2023)
Outward Bound, A Finnish migration story
(LRC review, Jan-Feb 2023)
Listen, World
(WSJ review, October 19, 2022)
Fearless
(WSJ review, June 13, 2022)
On the Silver Trail
( LRC review, April 2022)
Heiresses
(WSJ review, February 8, 2022)
Dear John
(WSJ review, January 9, 2022)
The Man Who Hated Women
(WSJ review, July 2, 2021)
Undreamed Shores
(WSJ review, June 18, 2021)
Agent Zero
(LRC review, April 2021)
“First Snow, Algoma” in A Like Vision; The Group of Seven & Tom Thomson by Ian A.C. Dejardin & Sarah Milroy
(Goose Lane Editions with McMichael Canadian Art Collection, 2020)
“Conquering Canada:” review of Stephen Bown’s “The Company: The Rise and Fall of the Hudson's Bay Empire."
(Wall Street Journal, October 27, 2020)
“Other People’s Gold Dust”; a review of Paul Starobin’s A Most Wicked Conspiracy, about the Alaska Gold Rush
(Wall Street Journal, June 24, 2020)
The Search for Amelia Earhart shows why some mysteries should never be solved
(The Globe and Mail, August 25, 2019)
Murder, She Writes: Why I returned to true crime
(Literary Review of Canada, September, 2019)
Widening Our Views: Understanding Canadian History requires both Context and a Sense of Proportion
(Canadian History, February-March, 2019)
Widening Our Views: Understanding Canadian History requires both Context and a Sense of Proportion
(Canadian History, February-March, 2019)
“Meanwhile, in Another Forest,” review of Dead Tree Media, Manufacturing the Newspaper in Twentieth Century North America” by Michael Stamm
(Literary Review of Canada, November, 2018)
Canada 150, doomed from the start, now ends with a whimper
(The Globe and Mail, December 2017)
A Strangely Obtuse Country
(Literary Review of Canada, March 2016)
Too Big to Film
(Canada's History, December, 2013)
Prime Minister in Waiting
(The Walrus, November, 2013)
True Fictions
(Quill & Quire, September, 2013)
We Had No Idea What Alexander Graham Bell Sounded Like. Until Now
(Smithsonian Magazine, May, 2013)
Good riddance, Disneyland North
(Ottawa Citizen, December 14, 2012)
On Wings of Ecstasy
(Cottage Life, Winter 2012)
A Century at the Centre of Capital Buzz
(Ottawa Citizen, June 2, 2012)
Reign Maker: Governor General David Johnston
(Walrus, January/Februrary 2012)
After the Gold Rush
(Canada's History, December 2010)
Q & A: Charlotte Gray on Gold Diggers
(More.ca, November 2010)
Faded Hero
(Walrus, October 2010)
Hundertwasser makes a splash
(Brick 84, Winter 2010)
The Biography Trust-Busters
(Queen’s Quarterly, Winter 2009)
Canada’s Homeless Portrait Gallery
(Literary Review of Canada, Dec 2008)
Into the Wilderness
(National Post, Aug 23, 2008)
Naomi Klein: The Making of a Global Activist
(Chatelaine, Oct 2007)
The Miracle of the Rideau Canal
(The Ottawa Citizen, Aug 15, 2007)
Yours, Mine and Ours: When does it become 'Our' History?
(The Ottawa Citizen, Mar 31, 2007)
Country's Portrait needs a Gallery
(The Ottawa Citizen, Feb 8, 2007)
"Who does she think she is?" Profile of Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson
(Toronto Star, May 15, 2005)
Canada's Storyteller (Pierre Berton)
(Quill and Quire, Jan 2005)
Under Wraps
(Globe and Mail, Jan 8, 2005)
Why I Give Sir John an A
(Globe and Mail, Nov 25, 2004)
History is King
(National Post, Dec 27, 2004)
Carol (memoir of Carol Shields)
(Ottawa Citizen, Jul 20, 2003)
Lodged at Pine Island
(Globe and Mail, Jun 27, 2003)
End Notes - Why Me?
(Ottawa Citizen, Sep 15, 2002)
Dominion Institute and Canadian History
(Globe and Mail, Apr 29, 2002)
Historical Letters in Modern Dress
(Ottawa Citizen, Feb 24, 2002)
Facts and Arguments: Letters from ... past
(Globe and Mail, Feb 1, 2002)
The New Biography
(Queen's Quarterly, Summer 2001)
History Wars
(Saturday Night, Oct 7, 2000)
Biography of My Biography
(National Post, Oct 29, 1999)
Mattie Sure Shot: Photographing during B.C.’s turn-of-the-century mining boom, Mattie Gunterman preserved a pioneering era
(Canadian Geographic, Mar/Apr 2000)
Monthly columns on Ottawa
(Saturday Night, 1985-1993)