Sheila Hirtle
Sheila Hirtle (1941-2024) was a Canadian author, artist, editor and researcher whose books spanned history, travel, geography and the natural world.
She grew up in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, and left at 16 for New York, where she studied fashion and design. She went on to work as an illustrator, art director and editor of design magazines, and as an artist, with several one-woman shows at the Pollock Gallery in Toronto. She lived and worked in London, Moscow, Paris and Cape Town.
Sheila co-wrote five books with her husband, Marq de Villiers:
- Blood Traitors (1996)
- Into Africa (1997)
- Sahara (2002)
- A Dune Adrift (2004), winner of the Evelyn Richardson Prize for Non-fiction
- Timbuktu (2007)
Sheila and Marq were married for almost sixty years.