Courtesy Canada Council

Kate Pullinger

A dozen years ago, Kate Pullinger set about writing what became her eighth novel. On Tuesday, that long process was recognized in a special way in Montreal. The Cranbrook native's novel "The Mistress of Nothing" was awarded the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction, one of Canada's most prestigious prizes.

"The Mistress of Nothing," based on a true story, tells the Victorian era tale of Lucie Lady Duff Gordon and her maid Sally. Over the course of a memorable journey down the Nile with her Lady, in the hopes that the trip will cure Gordon of her tuberculosis, Sally comes to realizations about the nature of power - its seductiveness, its elusiveness and its ability to alter the soul in manifold ways.

The work of historical fiction is a bit of departure for Pullinger, who has written several acclaimed novels in the gothic genre, as well as collaborating with film director Jane Campion on a novel adaption of "The Piano."

"I'm interested in good stories, and this is the story that came to me," Pullinger said in an interview from Montreal, shortly after the awards were announced. "It wasn't a decision to write an historical novel, it was more that this was the story that I wanted to tell - this was the story that arrived at the forefront of my imagination."

Pullinger had been to Egypt once before, and went back again during the writing process, but the bulk of the exacting research was spent pouring over historical records in England, where she currently resides (Lucie Duff Gordon's letters from Egypt are still in print almost 150 years after first being published).

"I can't go to Egypt in 1863, which would have been a really useful thing," she said. "So a lot of the research I did was reading, and looking at the historical records of the time, trying to figure out what it would have been like.

"But my trip to Luxor really helped - the sky looks the same, the Nile still flows, and there's a lot about that landscape that is absolutely timeless."

The historical and dramatic nature of the story intrigued Pullinger, and the social situations of women at the time, and indeed the positions of women in society in general came into play in the book. But of especial interest for Pullinger was the role that class plays in the story.

"It's about a Victorian era heiress and her maid, and the way power shifts and plays out between them. That was of huge interest to me. Lucy Gordon, the aristocrat at the heart of the story, was a real pioneer, a real bohemian. She lived the way she wanted to live, despite the fact that she was a woman."

While the book was only released in August, 2009, it's publication came after 12 years of incubation and writing.

"The book took me a really long time to write. I abandoned it and then went back to it. It wasn't until very late in the process that I figured out how it needed to be written. So I lived with it for a long time.

"When I did actually finish it, it was a very peculiar feeling, because I had it nagging away at me all those years. So finishing it was a very odd process - both being tremendously relieved, but also rather bereft.

"But winning this prize obviously gives it a whole new dimension, a whole new life. And winning the prize means it's going to find its way to readers that otherwise might not have come across it."

The award itself is one of Canada's most prestigious. Coming back to Canada to receive it feels "just fantastic," Pullinger said. "I come back to Canada frequently, so I don't feel completely out of touch with what's going on here. But it's such an incredible honour to receive this prize, both as a writer and as a Canadian.

Pullinger, 47, was born in Cranbrook, where she still has connections. She went to high school on Vancouver Island, attended McGill University in Montreal for a while, and worked in the Yukon. She moved to London in the 1980s, where she still resides.

Pullinger asked after Cranbrook, and was interested to hear about the recent referendum.

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