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14 - The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday September 30, 2006 www.oakvillebeaver.com Author's grandfather was a Messianic cult leader By Melanie Cummings SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER Kate Barlow tried to write her childhood story about life in England's infamous Agapemone (pronounced aga-pemunee, which is Greek, for abode of love). It was a pseudo religious community that was built on her grandfather's belief that he was the messiah. "But it was ridiculous, so I put it aside," said Barlow, who physically distanced herself from her family roots by immigrating to Canada in 1980. She did eventually write her story of life in this closed community, as she remembered it. She'd put her thoughts down on paper in her newly adopted home, on Water's Edge Drive, before heading in to work, where for 12 years Barlow wrote daily about the real worlds of others, as a reporter at The Hamilton Spectator. By the time Barlow retired in 2001 at age 60, the book's first draft was complete. Truth is stranger than fiction in Barlow's memoir Abode of Love Growing Up in a Messianic Cult. New Brunswick publisher Goose Lane Editions, which owns the Canadian and U.S. distribution rights, released the book here in September. (It's due out across the U.S. in spring.) Barlow and a restaurant full of RON KUZYK / OAKVILLE BEAVER FLAG WAVERS: Oakville author Kate Barlow is seen here reading from her new book, Abode of Love: Growing Up in a Messianic Cult, at the launch on Sept. 17. It's the true story of life inside a religious cult in England. Barlow's grandfather was a cult leader who claimed to be the reincarnation of the son of God. friends, fans, former coworkers and Henry James Prince. It enticed many allowed in only after leaving their family recently launched her literary intelligent and affluent people who families and established lives behind accomplishment. were convinced that Prince and later and completely divesting themselves Barlow's grandfather John Hugh her grandfather were as they declared of their possessions. The common Smyth-Pigott left the Church of they were: the sons of God. stock paid for the Abode and its lavish England and eventually inherited the Inside this community so-called furnishings. cult created in 1846 by founder Rev. spiritual brides and disciples were The cult slowly frittered after Smyth-Pigott died in 1927 at age 75, and the spiritual concubine ended with the death of the last surviving member, Sister Ruther, at the age of 90 in 1956. Even so, the Abode's secrecy continued to titillate the nation's gossip mill throughout Barlow's childhood years. "It certainly was a different childhood," said Barlow. "But I had no concept of anyone else's reality at the time. It only became different when others told me so and when I couldn't get answers to my questions from the people with whom I lived." Abode of Love follows young Barlow's journey of insatiable curiosity. "I learned tolerance and openmindedness from the experience," she added. However, it also left her "totally disinterested in any religion." Currently, she is working on writing another story and in between compiling pages heads out hiking to conquer various sections of the expansive Bruce Trail with her husband Ivor. (They've been working off and on their goal to complete the whole 850-kilometre stretch from Queenston To Tobermory for a couple of years now.) Although the book was initially released in the U.K. in April (by Mainstream) and Australia afterwards, talk of agents, publicists and publishers still prompts giddy shock in this new literary world in which Barlow has humbly entered. Delivered to select homes in the Hamilton, Oakville, Burlington and Mississauga communities six times a year. Also available at Chapters and Indigo. O WIN! ENTER T Oakville Beaver $ 72 00 year MAY ISSU TOR E IN S ES NO W! If you become a new pre-paid reader, you will be entered into a draw to win 2 Leaf Tickets to see the Leafs play the Boston Bruins on Tuesday, November 28th, 2006. Call Circulation to become a new pre-paid reader FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CALL 905- 845-8536 905-845-9742