Alexander's Way

 Alexander's Way takes readers into the borderlands of history and fiction, memory and possibility… reminds us that where we start our stories, how we trace their roots, and the stories we choose to tell, all say a great deal about who we are, and may yet become.  Elizabeth Jameson, Professor of History, Imperial Oil & Lincoln McKay Chair in American Studies, University of Calgary.

 A Cree Elder once told me that the longest journey for some is the short distance between the head and the heart. Such is Alexander’s Way … a richly-textured account of the life’s journey of a strange man in strange times …  the most compelling (characters) are the women, who are made of sturdy stuff - strong, insightful, fierce and sometimes frightening. Debora Steel, Editor in Chief, Windspeaker, Canada’s National Aboriginal News Source.

…a refreshing perspective on such Woodlands Cree concepts as the many-faceted wihtiko and the pre-Judaeo-Christian concept of the pawakan. Trafford …has made  a sincere effort at historical accuracy, or at least seeks the historical truth. In that, he has achieved what few novelists have managed. David Westfall,editor and compiler of Castel's English Cree Dictionary and Memoirs of the Elders.

The storytelling is mesmerizing … there are more clues cleverly concealed and hidden here than the most ingenious Agatha Christie mystery."
Pam Asheton, equestrian journalist, interpretative backcountry writer, and feature writer for Canadian Cowboy Country.

 Trafford's writing is Quakerly: spare and modest, but never lacking in confident flow, illuminating that place and time as Alexander pushes deeper into the heart of the west to find the Light inside himself.  Marina Endicott, Alberta author, director, dramaturge, playwright and editor.

Alexander’s Way is a novel of early 19th Century power, economics and worthiness. It is the saga of Quaker Alexander James, his flight from a banker’s wealth and commanding prosperity in Philadelphia, his pacifist exile during the American Revolution by George Washington, and his awakening and redemption in the wild west, fur-trading era of Canada. Sewing the seeds for a financial dominion that will grow from a small fur-trading company into the Sun On The Mountains trading empire, Alexander James learns how love, trust and profit can transcend all cultures if faith is unshakable.