Melanie Blake is the executive director of Classical Pursuits and
organizer of the annual Toronto Pursuits cultural salon. She studied
English and French at Fordham University and the Université de
Montpellier, and has an MA in literature and linguistics from the
University of Nottingham. A solo backpacking trip through the UK,
Ireland and France sparked a love of travel that has taken her to the
Norman countryside as a teaching assistant, the pulsing streets of New
Delhi as a financial editor, and behind the wheel of a tour van as a
French-language guide in San Francisco. She loves languages, cocktails,
and the unexpected.