I was talking the other day to a friend who is planning to send her son to Edith Cavell Elementary School.

“That name sounds familiar,” I said. “Who was she?”

Neither of us could remember. Even after writing two books of biographies, I’m a complete history dunce. It turns out that Edith Cavell was a British nurse executed in World War I for helping Allied soldiers escape from Belgium to the Netherlands.

Shortly after this conversation, I listened to a CBC podcast about a new series of biographies, by famous Canadians and about famous Canadians. There’s one by Charlotte Grey about Nellie McClung…

… and one by David Adams Richards about Lord Beaverbrook…

… and a whole bunch of others, which I am hereby vowing to read, in order to increase my pitiful knowledge of history.

(By the way, Ms. Cavell, if you’re up there listening, your school is another one which ranks in the “sucks for seismic safety” division. Feel free to intervene.)