P.S. Duffy grew up in Baltimore, but spent many summers sailing in Nova Scotia, which she regards as her second home. She is a science writer for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota, where she lives with her husband. The Cartographer of No Man's Land is her first novel. As a US citizen, conscious of the status of Vimy Ridge as an icon of Canadian history, she approached her subject with some trepidation until an 'old salt' from the town of Mahone Bay told her: 'You do it. You write about Vimy. These young fellers forget. Don't you be afraid to write of it.' And so, humbled as she felt by the prospect, she did.