by Edith Cody-Rice
The Ashton General Store is a rather magical place. All painted white with stripes of pastel green and pink, antiques clustered over the top shelves and cozy conversation settings, it makes you feel you have stepped out of winter into a summery place of ice cream cones and sweets. It is here that an ad hoc group of Ashton authors meets on the comfortable chairs and couches.
Ashton, population about 200, is a village situated about 40 kilometres west of Ottawa. Incorporated into Ottawa in 2001, it boasts a well known brew pub and the Ashton General Store at its centre. And it is next door to Mississippi Mills. It is also home to six published authors, who, among them, have published nearly twenty books. The six authors are David Johnston (former GG of Canada), Sharon Johnston, Eliza Reid (former first lady of Iceland) and Iain Reid (both raised in Ashton and represented by their mother Allie Reid who still lives in Ashton), Donna Johnson, and poet Marcia Taylor. They meet there informally from time to time to compare notes, chat and exchange ideas.
In honour of this remarkable collection of writers in this one tiny community, the owner of the Ashton General Store, Krysta Roney, an avid reader since early childhood, has devoted a shelf in the store to her authors.
The Authors and their books
Donna Johnson
- Shattered Motherhood: Surviving the Guilt of a Child’s Suicide (2025)
David Johnston
- Empathy: Turning Compassion into Action—with Brian Hanington (2023)
- The Idea of Canada: Letters to a Nation (2019)
- Trust: Twenty Ways to Build a Better Country (2018)
- Ingenious: How Canadian Innovators Made the World Smarter, Smaller, Kinder, Safer, Healthier, Wealthier, and Happier—co-written by Tom Jenkins (2017)
- Innovation Nation (young readers edition of Ingenious)—co-written by Tom Jenkins (2017)
- Numerous scholarly legal texts
Sharon Johnston
- Patchwork Society (2020)
- Matrons and Madams (2018)
Eliza Reid
- Death on the Island (2025)
- Secrets of the Sprakkar (2022)
Ian Reid
- We Spread (2022)
- Foe (2018)—made into a Netflix film
- I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2016)—made into a Netflix film
- The Truth About Luck: What I Learned on my Road Trip with Grandma (2013)
- One Bird’s Choice: A Year in the Life of an Over-educated, Underemployed Twentysomething Who Moves Back Home (2010)
Marcia Taylor
- Grip the Doorknob: Mostly Funny Poems (2019)
All books are available at or can be ordered through the Ashton General Store.
