MARK CURFOOT-MOLLINGTON
St. Bartholomew’s Bridge Club, MacKay Street, Oct. 23, 2016.
“I’m the great-grandson of William Curfoot-Mollington, who was the sculptor of the library at the House of Commons.
“I’m 69. I came to Ottawa for graduate school, and I’ve been living here, off and on, ever since. But I’m originally from Toronto. I play with this bridge club every Monday. It’s a very good club; we get between three and four tables each week. And this is the kind of neighbourhood it is: If you called it a seniors club, you wouldn’t get anybody, but call it bridge and the punters come out. But it’s just such a nice mix of people.
“A real cross-section. One lady was the headmistress at Elmwood, another was a pediatric surgeon.
“I was for many years a public servant, but I laid myself off when I turned 50, when we were having big layoffs. And then I did consulting work. I’ve recently started a
new career as a novelist. My first novel came out in June and they did a Table 40 dinner for me — they invite authors like (John) Ibbitson and Charlotte Gray to these literary dinners at Fraser Café. It’s organized by Books on Beechwood. And I had a launch at Books on Beechwood and another in Italy, which was fun because … well, the book isn’t translated into Italian, but I had to do my presentation in Italian, which was very good for me; I spend half the year in Italy. The book came out in June. It’s called Albert and Ettore.
“I’ve always written, and I used to write books and just run off a few copies for friends. But this time I thought, ‘No, I’m going to publish this book.’ It takes place in Canada and Italy, and a bit in the United Kingdom. There was a terrible event that took place in Toronto in 1967, the centennial year — a terrible incident that resulted in the death of a young woman.
“It was front page news, every day, but no one knows about it now. So that part of the book is true; I sat through the court proceedings. I was intrigued by it. It’s pretty bizarre.
“I’ve started my second novel now, combining child trafficking, drug trafficking, white supremacists and ISIL. I’d just killed off a bus full of children, so I was pretty ruthless at bridge today.”