TORONTO - Award-winning Canadian author Lawrence Hill had his 15 minutes with the Queen Thursday and says he enjoyed their conversation about his novel "The Book of Negroes" - even though she hadn't read it.

Hill won the equivalent of about C$20,000 and a meeting with the Queen after being awarded the Commonwealth Writers' Prize in May for overall best book.

Hill says he was surprised by how conversational and engaged the Queen was during their chat, and how easygoing the experience was.

She asked Hill about the historical roots of his novel, what it's like to be a writer, and she spoke about her visits to Canada and how she imagines it would be a "wonderful" place to live.

Hill says the Queen had only been briefed on his book and hadn't actually read it but he wasn't disappointed.

"The Book of Negroes" tells the story of an 11-year-old girl who is abducted from her village in West Africa and made to be a slave in North Carolina. She is able to escape to Nova Scotia after the Revolutionary War but still finds slavery, segregation and abuse in Canada.

The novel is based on the actual Book of Negroes, a document from 1783 that lists the names and descriptions of 3,000 slaves who were able to escape to British colonies.

His novel - titled "Someone Knows My Name" in the United States - has received glowing reviews and was named by Amazon.com as one of last year's top 100 books.

Hill, who lives in Burlington, Ont., has written several other novels and non-fiction books and is a former reporter for the Globe and Mail and Winnipeg Free Press.

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