Margaret Bunel Edwards is a Canadian of French Huguenot descent who lives in Ottawa. She draws on the childhood experience of her children as well as her own when writing for children. Before beginning The Ocean Between, which is partly based on her family history, she pored over newspapers from 1874 at the National Library in Ottawa in order to develop a feel for early Montreal and the lifestyle and attitudes of the people.

As a writer, Margaret has had over 500 stories and articles published, many of them in the juvenile field. She has taught writing courses for the Ottawa Board of Education and has published two books on juvenile fiction and article writing with Pamphlet Publishing of Ohio. Several of her child care booklets were the basis of a radio series which she wrote for the Canadian Broadcasting Association and she has had two picture books published in Canada, the best known being Little Stitch. She has had many children’s short stories published in anthologies by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Ginn, Nelson and Gage.

As a professional writer, Margaret has reviewed children’s books for Canadian Book Review Annual. She is a past president of the Ottawa Branch of the Canadian Authors Association, from which she received the Dr. D.W.Thomson Award for service to the CAA. Other awards which she has won include the National Capital Writing Contest in 1988 and the Toronto Star Judge’s Choice for 1989. She is also a past National Vice-President for the Rideau-St. Lawrence area of the CAA