Article

Sheila Burnford

Published Online April 2, 2008

Last Edited December 15, 2013

Sheila Burnford, author (b in Scotland 11 May 1918; d at Bucklers Hard, Hampshire, Eng 20 Apr 1984). Educated at private schools in England, France and Germany, Burnford served as a volunteer ambulance driver during WWII before immigrating to Canada and settling in Port Arthur, Ontario.

Burnford, Sheila

Sheila Burnford, author (b in Scotland 11 May 1918; d at Bucklers Hard, Hampshire, Eng 20 Apr 1984). Educated at private schools in England, France and Germany, Burnford served as a volunteer ambulance driver during WWII before immigrating to Canada and settling in Port Arthur, Ontario.

Her first novel, The Incredible Journey (1961), an immediate international best-seller and a Walt Disney movie (1963), recounts the struggle for survival of 3 friends, a bull terrier, a golden labrador and a siamese cat who travel over 300 km through the northern Ontario wilderness to return home. Among her other works are The Fields of Noon (1964), a book of autobiographical essays; Mr Noah and the Second Flood (1973), an ecological parable for children; and the novel Bel Ria: Dog of War (1977).