The Coronation Voyage

David E. Kemp, a former professor of drama at Queen’s University, is
the author of The Pleasures and Treasures of the United Kingdom.

Set in 1953 on a ship filled with first-class passengers and tourists en
route from Montreal to London to see the coronation of Queen Elizabeth
II, The Coronation Voyage is a gripping tale of love, responsibility,
deceit, sacrifice, and vengeance.

The Chief is an audacious Mafioso fleeing to England with his two
sons, Elienne and Sandro. Not used to playing by anyone else’s rules,
the Chief is taken aback when the Diplomat (the Trade Commissioner of
the Canadian High Commission in London), who holds for the family new
passports that represent the keys to freedom, asks for an extra gift on
top of the money he’s already received. The Chief must make the most
important decision of his dubious career—will he sacrifice his
youngest son for guaranteed safe conduct? The theme of sacrifice is also
reflected in the story of another passenger, Alice Gendron, the
provincial French-Canadian wife of a Liberal Party minister who is
bitter at the English for the Dieppe slaughter of 1942 that left two of
her sons dead and one seriously injured.

The Coronation Voyage expresses its ambitious themes through characters
we believe in and situations with which we identify.