Work Text:
One of Canada's most prolific, but forgotten, writers was Meredydd Sock.
Born in Ontario on September 19th, 1460 on his family's farm, Meredydd was of British descent, both sides of his family tracing their ancestry back to British colonists who migrated after Arthur Pendragon's conquests in North America, including Ontario.
Meredydd, coming from an educated mercantile family, grew up with books in the home, including Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain, igniting a love of reading that stayed with him all his life.
As a young man Meredydd attended Saint Martin's University, Canada's oldest university and one of the few remaining bastions of Celtic Christianity. He studied Latin and history there, and it is while at Saint Martin's he started to write seriously, focusing on fiction.
In the beginning Meredydd wrote short stories, writing a hundred in all between 1480 and 1498, working on the family farm while writing on the side. Then, in 1500, seeking to establish himself as a professional writer, he left Canada for London, the hub of the literary world.
Settling down in a small apartment Meredydd spent the next five years producing six novels, each one becoming bestsellers, though their literary merit was mocked by critics and fellow writers alike.
His best work in terms of sales was Cold Lips, an erotic rags to riches tale of an English maid who sleeps her way to power.
In 1505 Meredydd switched his focus to playwriting, producing ten over the next six years, but none sold.
By 1515, penniless and destitute, Meredydd tried returning to Canada to retire on his family's farm, but before he could buy passage he was struck down by dysentery, dying on April 30th, his body being buried in an unmarked pauper's grave.