- Jan Hilliard was a pseudonym of a woman who was born Hilda Kay, but was most often identified as Hilda Kay Grant in literary references.
- In her personal life, she preferred to be called Kay, her maiden name, in lieu of her christened first name Hilda. She told friends that she did not like the name Hilda which may have been transformed into Hilliard for The Salt-Box, her Leacock Medal winning book, in part to cloak her family and childhood friends, but also to have the freedom to mix a little fiction with her largely factual account of her early life.
- She was also identified on formal occasions as Mrs. J. H. Grant (Joseph Howe).
 |
| Example of her Crime Fiction |
- Hilda Kay Grant wrote eight other books. None of these post-Salt-Box works were considered humorous.
- Two were researched biographies (One of Samuel Cunard), several were works of crime fiction for young readers, and one was a technical book on gardening in cities.
- One of the biographies told the life of her distant relative: the Scottish civil engineer and lighthouse builder Robert Stevenson. He was a grandfather of Robert Louis Stevenson, making Grant also related to the writer.
- Grant did not begin writing until she was in her forties and stopped writing professionally in her fifties.
- Her primary career was as an artist. She was particularly known for her work as an illustrator and water colorist.
 |
| Her Little Bit of an Obit |
- When she died in Toronto in 1996, no funeral was held.
- Her cremated remains were transferred to her late husband’s family plot in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia for interment.