Agent Jack: The True Story of MI5’s Secret Nazi Hunter by Robert Hutton London: St. Martin’s Press, 2019. Distributed in Canada by Raincoast Books Reviewed by Julian Wake * When I first read Eric Roberts’ Salt Spring Saga, someone here on Salt Spring — my home — told me that he had been an important…
Read more #745 The secret spy of Salt Spring
ESSAY: Beyond the Great Western Peninsula by Richard Mackie * I received a doctorate in Canadian history at UBC in 1993 and taught as a sessional lecturer at three colleges or universities on Vancouver Island between 1994 and 2002.[1] To the uninitiated, Canadian history is divided in half, into “pre-Confederation” and “post-Confederation,” shortened to “pre-confed”…
Read more #742 Beyond the Great Western Peninsula
River Tales: Stories from My Cowichan Years by Liz Maxwell Forbes Crofton: Osborne Bay Books, 2019 $24.95 / 9780994906533 Reviewed by Georgina Montgomery * It has always been a happy thought to me that the creek runs on all night, new every minute, whether I wish it or know it or care, as a closed…
Read more #738 Cowichan soliloquy
The River Battles: Canada’s Final Campaign in World War II Italy by Mark Zuehlke Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2019 $37.95 / 9781771622356 Reviewed by Richard Lonsdale * Twenty-five years ago there were very few popular book-length histories of the Canadians in the Italian Campaign of World War II. We can thank award-winning author Mark…
Read more #737 Canada vs Germany in Italy
San Josef by Harold Macy New Westminster: Tidewater Press, 2019 $20.00 / 9781775165989 Reviewed by Valerie Green * Although I have lived on Vancouver Island for over forty years, I have never travelled farther north than Port Hardy. All I knew of San Josef and Cape Scott at the northern tip of the island was…
Read more #734 Destination Danish colony
They Call Me George: The Untold Story of Black Train Porters and the Birth of Modern Canada by Cecil Foster Windsor, ON: Biblioasis, 2019 $22.95 / 9781771962612 Reviewed by John Douglas Belshaw * For Black History Month Canada (February 1- 20, 2020) we present John Belshaw’s review of Cecil Foster’s They Call Me George: The…
Read more #732 Race and rails
Surveying the 120th Meridian and the Great Divide: The Alberta-BC Boundary Survey, 1918-1924 by Jay Sherwood Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2019 $29.95 / 9781773860091 Reviewed by Keith Regular * Editor’s note: see also Robert Allen’s review of this book’s predecessor, Surveying the Great Divide: The Alberta/BC Boundary Survey, 1913-1917 (Caitlin Press, 2017) in The Ormsby…
Read more #730 Marking the Great Divide
The Empire on the Western Front: The British 62nd and Canadian 4th Divisions in Battle by Geoffrey Jackson Vancouver: UBC Press, 2019 $34.95 / 9780774860154 Reviewed by James D. Barrett * Geoffrey Jackson’s readable study of the performance of the 62nd Division British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and the 4th Canadian Division (CEF) hits the mark…
Read more #721 Five British Columbia battalions
Land of Destiny: A History of Vancouver Real Estate by Jesse Donaldson Vancouver: Anvil Press, 2019 $20.00 / 9781772141443 Reviewed by Patricia E. Roy * Donaldson’s thesis is simple: “The history of Vancouver is the history of real estate” (p. 5). He persuasively argues that Vancouver has had housing crises almost continuously since its founding…
Read more #719 Perpetual real estate fizz
Major Misconduct: The Human Cost of Fighting in Hockey by Jeremy Allingham, with a foreword by Daniel Carcillo Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2019 $22.95 / 9781551527710 Reviewed by Timothy Lewis * If you’re an ardent supporter of Canada’s recently deposed elder statesman of hockey commentary — Don Cherry — and his championing of fighting in…
Read more #718 Bare-knuckle boxing on ice
Voices from Hornby & Denman Island Home Support, 1979-2019 by Megan J. Davies and Rachel Barken (editors) Hornby and Denman Community Health Care Society, 2019 $10.00 / 978199278403 Available from Abraxas Books, Denman Island Reviewed by Lee Reid * “Will there be help for me when I am old and in need?” is the enduring…
Read more #715 Growing old on Hornby and Denman
John Scouler (c. 1804-1871) Scottish Naturalist: A Life, with Two Voyages by E. Charles Nelson Glasgow: Glasgow Natural History Society, 2014 £11.00 (U.K.) / 9780956529510 Reviewed by Robert M. Galois * Naturalists’ Networks and the Northwest Coast in the Early Nineteenth Century On 25 July, 1824, John Scouler, a young Scottish naturalist, boarded the Hudson’s…
Read more #714 A naturalist on the North Pacific
When Days are Long: Nurse in the North by Amy Wilson, with an introduction by Laurel Deedrick-Mayne Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2019. First published in Sidney by Gray’s Publishing, 1965 $24.95 / 9781773860084 Reviewed by Heather Longworth Sjoblom * “Such a challenge! And I couldn’t resist it,” wrote Amy Wilson about her acceptance as field…
Read more #701 Nine years of northern nursing
UBC: The Next Century by Tyee Bridge, with a foreword by Santa J. Ono Vancouver: Figure 1 Publishing, 2019 $40.00 / 9781773270883 Reviewed by Herbert Rosengarten * From the beginning the University of British Columbia (UBC) has nurtured ambitions of greatness. Its potential was recognized by BC’s premier, Sir Richard McBride, who sent his congratulations…
Read more #700 The university of Point Grey
Once Well Beloved: Remembering a British Columbia Great War Sacrifice by Michael Sasges Victoria: Royal British Columbia Museum Press, 2019 $17.95 / 9780772672551 Reviewed by Sylvia Crooks * The national trauma of the First World War, even though it was fought over one hundred years ago, is still deeply felt today. Michael Sasges’ Once Well…
Read more #699 Reply to a cenotaph
Voices from the Skeena: An Illustrated Oral History by Robert Budd, illustrated by Roy Henry Vickers Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2019 $29.95 / 9781550178838 Reviewed by Tyler McCreary * On March 12, 2020, Voices from the Skeena: An Illustrated Oral History, by Robert Budd and Roy Henry Vickers, was one of five books shortlisted for…
Read more #697 Skeena echoes and silkscreens
Magic Moments in BC Sports: A Century in Photos by Kate Bird Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2019 $24.95 / 9781771644518 Reviewed by Timothy Lewis * There is something uniquely compelling about a photograph of a sporting moment…. [It] can … encapsulate the mood and magic, in a way that a televised event cannot, capturing a single…
Read more #695 BC sports snaps
Voices of Komagata Maru: Imperial Surveillance and Workers from Punjab in Bengal by Suchetana Chattopadhyay New Delhi: Tulika Books, 2018; New York: Columbia University Press, 2019 $35.00 (U.S.) / 9788193401583 Reviewed by Larry Hannant * Many Canadians became aware of the name Komagata Maru only in 2016, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, still in his…
Read more #685 Tracking the Komagata Maru
Advocates and activists by Graeme Wynn, with Jennifer Bonnell An extract from The Nature of Canada, edited by Colin M. Coates and Graeme Wynn (Vancouver: On Point Press, an imprint of UBC Press, 2019) * Jenny Clayton has reviewed The Nature of Canada for the Ormsby Review — see #603, Deep time to time slipping…
Read more #683 Nature’s advocates and activists
E.J. Hughes Paints British Columbia by Robert Amos Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2019 $35.00 / 9781771513104 Reviewed by Phyllis Reeve * How can I “review” a book that renders me breathless even before I open it? It takes a while to get past the cover, vibrating as it does with colour. This is the Fraser Valley…
Read more #679 Hughes across the Strait