“Amos has been clear about his purpose. ‘Because my work is first and foremost, of local interest, I did not pursue gallery representation. As it is unabashedly old-fashioned, I never bothered to try for government grants. My goal has been to create paintings, which people will like, and which will become part of the life of the community.'” Christina Johnson-Dean reviews Painting Victoria: Fifty Years of Memories From a City by The Sea, by Robert Amos (Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2025) $30 / 9781771514873
“Haig-Brown has said for many years that his 13 years in the fishing fleet educated him every bit as much as his going to university to prepare for being a writer in his life…” DC Reid reviews Raincoast Chronicles 25 – m̓am̓aɫa Goes Fishing, by Alan Haig-Brown (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2025) $24.95 / 9781998526185
“Roy documents Hart’s careful negotiations with Ottawa at federal-provincial conferences often to the province’s advantage. For example, during the Depression when unemployment was a major concern, Hart made arrangements with the federal government to take steps to address the problem.” John Hart: A Businessman in British Columbia Politics, by Patricia E. Roy (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2025) $34.95 / 9780774872515
“Ho has written his story with full sensory impact. We smell the difference between classes on the ship that brings Cheung and his son Wing to Canada and between wealthy and poor neighbourhoods in Victoria. Rich people get more room and proper sanitation. He also contrasts the exquisite cooking odours of Chinese cuisine with the smell of cabbage and boiled beef and the beautiful tremolo of the erhu and the pleasant clicking of mah-jong tiles in Fantan Alley…” Linda Rogers reviews Hopes Dreams Lies by Edward H. K. Ho (second edition) (Kindle, 2025) $4.30
“With the School Board now onside, the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts began classes in September 1925, squeezed into two rooms on the top floor of the Board office, a three-storey stone building at the corner of Dunsmuir and Hamilton streets. It operated as part of the city’s school system, though unlike regular public schools it charged an annual tuition of $50.” Daniel Francis contributes an essay about the series of historical events that took place in order to create what we now know as Emily Carr University, which had its centenary last year.
“’The quest for a new child-centred and humanistic education in Canada was born in British Columbia in the first years of the 1960s, significantly earlier than in the rest of the country,” Dr. Rothstein writes. “Alternative schools in BC were also more prolific and varied than in any other province.’” Patrick A. Dunae reviews Alternative Schools in British Columbia 1960-1975: A Social and Cultural History, by Harley Rothstein (Victoria: Friesen Press, 2024) $30.99 / 9781039135574
“Our interviewees have been many and varied: from seasoned poet George Bowering to newcomer, Giller Prize-shortlisted author, Eddy Boudel Tan, from bestselling history author Nancy Marguerite Anderson, to acclaimed memoirist Marion McKinnon Crook. It has been a privilege for me to shake the hands of all of the interviewees of 2025, sometimes in their own homes and workspaces, and ask them about their creative process.” Interview segment producer Trevor Marc Hughes looks back on a year of The British Columbia Review Interview Series.
“In this, the third (Giblin says last) of his books on the fishing-guide life and the odd, quirky characters of this profession and region, The Trophy Hunter: The Final Chronicles of a West Coast Fishing Guide, we renew acquaintance with the Lodge’s residents and their favourite fishing holes.” Marianne Scott reviews The Trophy Hunter: The Final Chronicles of a West Coast Fishing Guide, by David Giblin (Victoria: Heritage House, 2025) $24.95 / 9781772035551
“Personal interjections of Martin and her friends and family bring lightness and humour to the book, giving the reader a real sense of what it was like to live ‘on the edge’—the excitement of boat days when the steamships would pull into town (the road didn’t go through until 1959); learning to drive on Long Beach; exploits, and broken bones, of kids riding their bikes off the government wharf; swimming lessons in the ocean or at Kennedy Lake.” Adrienne Mason reviews Calm Harbour, Turbulent Seas: A History of Ucluelet, by Shirley Martin (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2025) $39.95 / 9781998526161
“The wry humour and the cheerful self-deprecation that frame the self-inflicted misadventure are absolutely fundamental to the DNA of this entire, wickedly unconventional memoir.” Theo Dombrowski reviews Unorganized Territory: A Boy’s Own Memoir, by David Gurr (Victoria: Stonehewer Books, 2025) $25.95 / 9781738993383
“This publication is timely because it invites us to take a step back from the headlines, narratives, and counter-narratives, and to learn who the Secwépemc people were and are; to appreciate their connection with their lands; and to understand the social relationships and responsibilities which foster mutual belonging in their communities.” Richard Butler reviews Secwépemc People, Land, and Laws: Yerí7 re Stsq’ey’s-kucw, by Marianne Ignace and Ronald E. Ignace (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2025) $39.95 / 9780228026358 (paperback release)
An author “enamoured with the engine’s colourful history and ongoing survival,” melds historical narratives and storytelling to create appealing glimpses of the engine in action, whether in 1886, 1947, or 1964. —Ron Verzuh reviews Engine 374 and Me: True (and Partly True) Stories of a Celebrated CPR Locomotive, by Lisa Anne Smith (Vancouver: Time Talk Press, 2024) $20.00 / 9780968786512
“This is Cecilia’s story and it is about a truly remarkable woman, her many accomplishments, and the lives of a quintessential Cariboo family of mixed Indigenous and European blood lines.” David Williams reviews One Arrow Left: A Memoir of Secwépemc Knowledge Keeper Cecilia DeRose, by Cecilia Dick DeRose w/ Sage Birchwater (Qualicum Beach: Caitlin Press, 2025) $26 / 9781773861586
“The individuals profiled in this book use all kinds of narrative formats, telling stories through poetry and prose, pictographs, maps, ribbon skirts, and beadwork. There is a serious challenge of scope with such a short volume, but it is successful in its brevity at providing a glimpse of the multitude of Indigenous storytellers.” Kristina Hannis reviews Ours to Tell: Reclaiming Indigenous Stories, by Eldon Yellowhorn & Kathy Lowinger (Toronto: Annick Press, 2025) $24.99 / 9781773219530
“Trevor Marc Hughes’ The Final Spire, is a history of the ascent of Mount Waddington, whereas Susanna Oreskovic’s Expedition to Mystery Mountain is a personal account of a 2018 reenactment of one of Don and Phyl Munday’s early expeditions to the area. Reenactments of famous climbs have been done in many places. In B.C., such re-creations include Mount Garibaldi near Vancouver and Bugaboo Spire northwest of Invermere. The reenactment of the Munday’s 1926 attempt on Mount Waddington (called ‘Mystery Mountain’ by them) would be a much more serious undertaking.” Glenn Woodsworth reviews Expedition to Mystery Mountain: Adventures of a Bushwhacking Knickerbocker-Wearing Woman, by Susanna Oreskovic (Montreal: Walnut Tree Press, 2021) $24.95 / 9780993918711 & The Final Spire: ‘Mystery Mountain’ Mania in the 1930s, by Trevor Marc Hughes (Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2025) $24.95 / 9781553807223
“The book is engaging, frank and occasionally a little salty. It’s a nicely turned-out book in hardcover with a dust jacket with a colour image of John Horgan in the prime of life. Undoubtedly, it’s not a coincidence the hardcover itself is NDP orange.” Steven Brown reviews John Horgan In His Own Words: A Memoir, by John Horgan with Rod Mickleburgh (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2025) $38.95 / 9781998526260
“This sense of purpose would fuel Mouchet for the rest of his days in his development of skiing programs for youth, and Firth not only chronicles those days but, impressively, and with great persuasiveness, illustrates and argues in favour of their benefits. Firth points out the programs’ success with Indigenous youth, brought by this ‘Man of God’ who brings out the best in kids, showing ‘that sport should be as much a connection with traditional values and history as it was an agent for social and cultural change.’” Trevor Marc Hughes reviews North Star: The Legacy of Jean-Marie Mouchet by John Firth (Victoria: Friesen Press, 2024) $19.99 / 9781039194328
“Regular’s Rough & Messy Justice is an exciting read, well-written and, above all, factual…But most importantly the cautionary tale ‘raises unsettling questions … about fairness, truth, and how easily justice bends to fear and bias.'” Kenneth Favrholdt reviews Rough & Messy Justice: A Train Heist, Murder & Misdeeds, by W. Keith Regular (Calgary: Durvile & Uproute, 2025) $35 / 9781990735660
“Judith and her husband were fortunate that so many friends had room for them to stay. They traveled back and forth across southern BC to stay in the free homes of a variety of friends, making their displacement more comfortable than those who stayed in emergency centres or sheltered wherever they could. Everywhere they went, they found people who cared deeply about their situation and offered food, shelter, or comfort. It’s one of the amazing, beautiful things about the place we live.” Myshara McMyn reviews Finding the Phoenix: An Evacuee’s Memoir of the McDougall Creek Wildfire, by Judith Lepore (Kelowna: Orion Press, 2025) $19.99 / 9781738277810
“Canadians rightly balked at American President Donald Trump’s suggestion that Canada become the 51st state. Fortunately, Victoria historian Graeme Menzies has sidelined that suggestion with his latest history of Captains James Cook, George Vancouver, and others who sailed to our shores in the late 18th century. Thanks to them, he explains, we remain thoroughly Canadian.” Ron Verzuh reviews Trading Fate: How a Little-Known Company Stopped British Columbia from Becoming an American State, by Graeme Menzies (Victoria: Heritage House, 2025) $29.95 / 9781772035483
