About the Author

CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD was born in Quebec and studied journalism at Ryerson University in Toronto. She has written for all four Toronto-based newspapers. She has won a National Newspaper Award for column writing, and in 2008 won the Governor General's Literary Award in non-fiction for her book Fifteen Days- Stories of Bravery, Friendship, Life and Death from Inside the New Canadian Army.

Reviews

National Bestseller
Finalist for the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing
Shortlisted for the Arthur Ellis Award for Excellence in Crime Writing "Every component of the Canadian justice factory gets its turn as an object of Blatchford's ire." --Maclean's "In her remarkable new book, Life Sentence, Christie Blatchford describes the Canadian judiciary as 'unelected, unaccountable, entitled, expensive to maintain and remarkably smug.' . . . I wish I could disagree with Ms. Blatchford. But I can't." --Alice Woolley, University of Calgary law professor and president of the Canadian Association for Legal Ethics

"There's a lot of meaty stuff about the Canadian criminal justice system in Blatchford's latest. Better yet, the meat comes wrapped in some crisp storytelling." --Winnipeg Free Press Praise for Fifteen Days
- "This book will open your eyes to this brutal war and it is worthy of our brave young men and women. It is a tough book written by a tough broad who tells it like it is. I could not put the book down." --Don Cherry
- "Christie is the most honest journalist I know. And Fifteen Days . . . resonates with truth. . . . The framework of this book might be 'Fifteen Days' . . . yet the exposition is more sweeping, infused with context, texture and candour." --Rosie DiManno, Toronto Star
- "Blatchford has a remarkable ability to convey the intensity of the emotions experienced by soldiers and their families. Do not expect to remain dry-eyed after reading this book." --Calgary Herald
- "[Fifteen Days] goes deep, and it goes personal. It tells the stories behind the stories. . . . For those who died wearing Canada's uniform, [Blatchford] gives them a life that no newspaper has the length and space to describe, and no television documentary can convey in an hour's time slot." --The London Free Press
- "A vivid and heroic portrayal of death in Afghantistan. . . . Fifteen Days is a good start to understanding the Canadian men and women who are fighting in Afghanistan." --The Chronicle-Herald (Halifax)