De la Roche, Mazo << duh luh RAWSH, MAY zoh >> (1879-1961), became one of the most popular novelists in Canadian literature. She was best known for a series of 16 novels about the Whiteoak family. The first Whiteoak novel was Jalna (1927), and the last was Morning at Jalna (1960). These novels tell the story of several generations of the family from 1852 to 1954. The central character is Adeline Whiteoak, who emigrates with her husband from the United Kingdom to Canada. She builds a home called Jalna in the countryside west of Toronto and dominates the lives of the family members who live there. The books create a vivid picture of upper-class life on a country estate. The Jalna saga was made into a successful Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television series in 1972. De la Roche also wrote other novels, as well as plays, short stories, and an autobiography called Ringing the Changes (1957). De la Roche was born in Newmarket, Ontario.
