I won’t forget the day I received a letter from Buckingham Palace.
In 2018, Queen Elizabeth II (QE2) was still alive and well in the sixty-sixth year of her seventy-year reign. My friend Lucy suggested I send Her Majesty a copy of my third novel, Bleak Landing. The book includes a scene from 1939 when King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (QE2’s parents) visited Winnipeg, where my characters lived. As I researched and wrote about that event, what intrigued me most was how Canada’s Prime Minister, Mackenzie King, and Winnipeg’s Mayor, John Queen, accompanied their Majesties on their various tours. The poor radio announcer, describing for his listeners the actions of the King and the Queen and Mayor Queen and Prime Minister King, got tongue-tied. Rumor has it he grew frustrated enough to swear on air, although that cannot be substantiated.
One hard-cover, large-print edition of Bleak Landing remained on my shelf waiting for the right recipient. I took Lucy’s suggestion and mailed it to the Queen, along with a nice letter. What did I have to lose but a few bucks in postage?
In the process, I learned about royal gift protocol and what types of gifts royal family members can accept. They may, for example, eat any food they receive. Perishable gifts with a value of less than £150 can also be given to charity or staff. Gifts cannot be sold or exchanged and eventually become part of the Royal Collection, held in trust by the reigning monarch for his or her successors and the nation.
A list of the Queen’s official gifts from 2018 includes over 70 items, ranging from Lego to framed charters to photographs to statues to jewelry to salt. I imagined my book becoming one of a gazillion items collecting dust in a gigantic warehouse where some poor scribe must document each one in a dusty, ancient record book with a quill pen. I confess, I also imagined Her Majesty riveted to my book late into the night, while sitting in her royal bed sipping Earl Grey from her Royal Albert teacup.
I would wait and see.
Four months later came the frame-worthy reply, written by Her Majesty’s lady-in-waiting, Lady Susan Hussey. While the letter made no promise of the Queen or anyone else reading my book, it was filled with the gracious thanks one expects from royalty. When I did a bit of digging on Lady Hussey, I discovered she was 80 years old. A baroness herself, she is Prince William’s godmother and served the Queen her entire adult life. One can only imagine how many of these thank-you letters she wrote.
As lovely as it feels to receive a letter from the palace, the royal stationery will never match the value of a much finer letter from a far more powerful source. It’s a love letter from the
King of kings, and you and I have access to it every day. According to Hebrews 4, the Word of God is alive — meaning it has the power to change you, not just once, but over and over. Nothing and no one is impervious to a Bible. Test it out for yourself and see. If Shakespearean English isn’t your first language, find a modern translation or paraphrase. If you’re not sure where to start, begin with the life of Jesus as recorded by Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. Digest a few verses or a chapter per day.
Then wait and see.
Terrie Todd is a Canadian author of seven historical and split-time novels and one nonfiction book. Her work has earned numerous Word Awards from The Word Guild, the 2018 Janette Oke Award from Inscribe Christian Writers Fellowship, and the 2022 Braun Book Award. She is also a Carol Award Finalist. Since 2010, she has written a “Faith and Humor” column for her hometown newspaper, and since 2021, a monthly column for the Heroes, Heroines, and History blog. She also teaches a Creative Writing course for a local community college.
Terrie lives with her husband, Jon, in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, where they raised their three children. They are grandparents to five boys. Her first MBI novel, Even If We Cry, releases in December 2024.
In the dead-end Canadian town of Bleak Landing, twelve-year-old Irish immigrant Bridget O’Sullivan lives in a ramshackle house and dreams of another life, even as the Great Depression rages. Routinely beaten by her father and bullied by schoolmate Victor Harrison, the waifish yet fiery redhead vows to run away and never return. Just a few short years later, run she does―fleeing the unspeakable repercussions of her father’s gambling. In Winnipeg, Bridget lands a job at a garment factory, the first step on her journey to shed her past and begin anew.
When her father dies, Bridget―now a striking and accomplished woman―returns home to claim her inheritance. But she has no identification to prove her stake, and no one in town recognizes her―except Victor, who has become a pastor and a candidate for town mayor. Though war has wounded him, his secret affection for Bridget remains, and now he’s the only one who can help her prove her integrity. But can he also prove he’s a changed man worthy of her forgiveness?
As Victor preaches of freedom in faith, will his words spark Bridget’s once-hopeless heart and lead her to the life she’s been seeking?
Sara Davison