The Recorded History of the Liard Basin 1790-1910: Where British Columbia joins the Yukon and N.W.T. by Anthony Kenyon Fort Nelson: Fort Nelson News, 2016 $60.00 / 9781771364140 Reviewed by George Szasz First published Dec. 7, 2016 * Anthony Kenyon, born and raised in England, graduated in medicine at Cambridge University (1958 and married in 1959…
Read more #60 The fur trade and textual analysis
Thomas Fuller: Architect for a Nation by Dorothy Mindenhall [Victoria:] Lakehill Books, 2015 $45.00 / 9780994809513 * Imagining Uplands: John Olmsted’s Masterpiece of Residential Design by Larry McCann [Victoria:] Brighton Press, 2016 $55.00 / 9780995066304 A joint review by Harold Kalman First published Dec. 6, 2016 …
Read more #59 From Civil Gothic to Modern
The Bold and Cold: A History of 25 Classic Climbs in the Canadian Rockies by Brandon Pullan Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2016 $45.00 / 9781771601153 Reviewed by Rod Szasz First published Dec. 4, 2016 * In The Bold and Cold, Brandon Pullan tells the story of the classic climbs in the Canadian Rockies in the…
Read more #58 Off the danger scale
ESSAY: Eyewitness to Bill Miner: A lost despatch from the Victoria Daily Colonist, 1904 by Fred Braches First published Dec. 1, 2016 * For British Columbians who know their history, the name Bill Miner evokes memories of a failed train robbery in 1906, a crime generously viewed as a gentleman’s transgression. Fred Braches shares new…
Read more #55 Miner without the moustache
The Life and Art of Mary Filer by Christina Johnson-Dean, with an introduction by Robert Held Salt Spring Island: Mother Tongue Publishers, 2016 $35.95 / 9781896949550 Reviewed by Janet Mary Nicol First published Nov. 30, 2016 * The Life and Art of Mary Filer follows the career of the glass sculptor Mary Filer. Trained as…
Read more #54 Breaking the glass ceiling
Cowboys of the Americas by Luis Fabini (photographs) and Wade Davis (text) Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2016 $50.00 / 9781771641166 Reviewed by Ken Mather First published Nov. 27, 2016 * Cowboys of the Americas dwells on the distant origins – southern Spain and Spanish America – of the vaqueros or cowmen of the grasslands of the…
Read more #51 Cow men, cowboys, vaqueros
Brewing Revolution: Pioneering the Craft Beer Movement by Frank Appleton Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2016 $24.95 / 9781550177824 Reviewed by Joe Wiebe First published No. 28, 2016 * In 1978 the back-to-the-land magazine Harrowsmith published a subversive how-to article, “The Underground Brewmaster.” It was written by Frank Appleton of Edgewood, formerly a supervisor at O’Keefe…
Read more #49 Talk is cheap, beer is better
Price Paid: The Fight for First Nations Survival by Bev Sellars Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2016 $19.95 / 9780889229723 Reviewed by Caroline Woodward First published November 24, 2016 * Editor’s note: as happens occasionally at The Ormsby Review, a happy mixup occurs and we end up with two reviews of the same book. For our second review…
Read more #48 From Soda Creek to best seller
Journey After Midnight: India, Canada and the Road Beyond by Ujjal Dosanjh Vancouver: Figure 1 Publishing, 2016 $34.95 / 9781927958568 Reviewed by Hugh Johnston First published November 21, 2016 * Journey After Midnight is Ujjal Dosanjh’s memoir of his journey from a village in the Punjab to London in 1964, and to Vancouver in 1968….
Read more #47 Ujjal’s odyssey
In This Together: Fifteen Stories of Truth & Reconciliation by Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail Victoria: Brindle & Glass (TouchWood Editions), 2016 $19.95 / 9781927366448 Reviewed by J.R. (Jim) Miller First published November 19, 2016 * When asked in September 2016 how he thought the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was being received, former…
Read more #46 Crafting a lasting reconciliation
The Rise and Fall of Emilio Picariello by Adriana A. Davies Fernie: Oolichan Books, 2016 $19.95 / 9780889823181 Reviewed by Lynne Bowen First published Nov. 16, 2016 * When authorities charged Emilio Picariello and Filumena Lassandro with the murder of Alberta Provincial Police Constable Stephen Lawson on 21 September 1922 in the Crowsnest Pass town…
Read more #45 The bootlegger and the maid
Pioneer merchant Louis Oppenheim: not Oppenheimer by Bonnie Ellen Campbell First published Nov. 14, 2016 * Editor’s note: Bonnie Campbell assumed she was English. As a young adult she was surprised to learn that her grandmother was the daughter of a Prussian-Jewish merchant Louis Oppenheim, of Yale, and his wife Nukwa (Hannah) of Spuzzum, daughter…
Read more #42 Nukwa and the merchant of Yale
All for the Greed of Gold: Will Woodin’s Klondike Adventure by Catherine Spude (editor) Pullman, WA: Washington State University Press, 2016 US $27.95 / 978-0874223354 Reviewed by Robert G. McCandless First published November 9, 2016 * Our history of the past 100 years seems so dominated by wars and their consequences that we have forgotten…
Read more #40 Windy Arm, Tutchi, Tagish Lake
ESSAY: For Remembrance Day 2016, Michael Sasges has reconstructed the life of Nicola Valley rancher John Foster Paton Nash. First published Nov. 7, 2016 * Note to Ormsby readers: I have dusted off this essay by Mike Sasges for re-use on Remembrance Day, 2020. I have rewritten the introduction, re-sized and rearranged the photos, and…
Read more #39 From Quilchena Creek to Flanders
Paid Price: The Fight for First Nations Survival By Bev Sellars Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2016 $19.95 9780889229723 Reviewed by Eldon Yellowhorn First published November 7, 2016 * Editor’s note: as happens occasionally at The Ormsby Review, a happy mixup occurs and we end up with two reviews of the same book. For our second review of…
Read more #38 Fact, myth, and powerpoint
Tod Inlet: A Healing Place by Gwen Curry Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2015 $25.00 / 9781771600767 Reviewed by Peter Grant First published November 4, 2016 * Shortlisted for the 2016 Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize, Gwen Curry’s first book, Tod Inlet: A Healing Place, joins a burgeoning, British Columbian literature of place—once more an environmental vision…
Read more #36 Eelgrass, cement, serenity
Letters from Mahonia Ranche, 1888–1895 by Fred Braches First published October 31, 2016 * At the age of 23, Murdoch Kirby immigrated to British Columbia from England with his friend Charles Sprott. They homesteaded at Glenwood in south Langley at the end of today’s 216th Street near the U.S. border, each on a quarter section…
Read more #34 Mahonia Ranche, Whannock
Watershed Moments: A Pictorial History of Courtenay and District by Christine Dickinson, Deborah Griffiths, Judy Hagen, and Catherine Siba Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2015 $34.95 / 9781550177220 Reviewed by Howard Macdonald Stewart First published October 30, 2016 * Comox Valley writers and Courtenay Museum curators Christine Dickinson, Deborah Griffiths, Judy Hagen, and Catherine Siba have…
Read more #33 Comox Valley vignettes
Bob Bouchette’s last story, 1938 by Janet Nicol First published October 21, 2016 * Long before Allan Fotheringham or Eric Nicol, Vancouver’s most popular columnist was Bob Bouchette. The prolific non-conformist Bob Bouchette wrote literally thousands of columns, usually around 700 words each, mostly for The Vancouver Sun. His six-part series on the abysmal conditions…
Read more #30 Bob Bouchette, everyman scribe
ESSAY: Across the Bright Continent: Althea Moody, Missionary and Artist in Western Canada by Jennifer Iredale First published October 21, 2016 * Missionary, linguist, educator, and artist Althea Moody (1865-1930) spent twenty years (1891-1911) teaching at the Anglican Church’s All Hallows School in Yale. This school admitted both “Indian” and “White” girls, making it exceptional…
Read more #29 Althea Moody and All Hallows