Munro, Alice

Alice Munro (née Laidlaw) was born in Wingham, a small town situated in South-West Ontario, Canada. Her family were fox and mink famers with little money to spend. Her mother was a teacher, but she contracted Parkinson's disease at an early age, so the young Alice had to help out at home. She has described herself as a strange and unpopular child, so she did not mind the housework since she would otherwise be on her own. She decided she wanted to become an author at the age of twelve after writing a story about how her mother became ill.