An intimate portrait of privilege and struggle, scandal and accolade, from the Old World to the new colonies of Vancouver's Island and British Columbia.

At the age of 33, Sarah Crease left her home in England to travel with her young family to a farflung outpost of the British Empire on the Pacific coast of North America. The detailed journals, letters and artwork she created over the next half century as she and her husband, Henry, established themselves in the New World offer a rich window into the private life and views of an English colonist in British Columbia.

This is a woman's story in her own words. It is also a story of the times she lived in, and of how her class, social standing and role as a settler shaped her relationships with the world around her. Henry & Self is the personal account of a remarkable woman who lived through nearly a century of colonial history, but it is also a unique perspective on the beliefs and motivations that shaped that century.

Kathryn Bridge, PhD, is an archivist and historian who has curated exhibitions and written about Emily Carr for several decades. Her research is focused on the body of Carr's art and writings held in the BC Archives collections. Exhibitions include Emily Carr: Artist, Author, Eccentric Genius (2001) and The Other Emily (2010) at the Royal BC Museum, Victoria; and Intimate Glimpses: The Early Life of Emily Carr (2011) at the Wing Sang Gallery, Vancouver. Writings include the introduction to Carr's Klee Wyck (2004) and the forewords to Wildflowers by Emily Carr (2003) and Sister and I: From Victoria to London, an illustrated manuscript journal by Carr published in 2011. Bridge's Emily Carr in England is to be published by the Royal BC Museum in 2014.

Kathryn Bridge's profile page

"Henry & Selfr remain[s] engaging, readable, and pertinent . . . it is clear that Bridge spent many hours with the archival collections she draws from, a fact that shines through in her writing, analysis, and choice of artwork and photographs." — Kelly Black, The Ormsby Review