Nancy J. Hughes is the granddaughter of Walter Luney.  She grew up in Victoria and attended St. Ann’s Academy and Oak Bay High School. She was a stay-at-home mother and later attended the University of Victoria, B.C. in the Pacific and Oriental  Studies department and spent four months studying Mandarin Chinese at East China Normal University, Shanghai China.

Her purpose in writing and publishing this book was to record the part her grandfather’s business played in the development and growth of the City of Victoria, British Columbia.