“These stories of resistance need to be shared to help understand the breadth of depravity of fascism and its impact that can evolve under unchecked hate and power. Rather than “fascism” being an abstract word or slogan, it becomes visceral when told as a story using sequential art.” David Lester writes an essay telling of how, “as the creeping noose of modern-day fascism encircles us, I found myself drawing a story from 80 years ago.” Partisans: A Graphic History of Anti-Fascist Resistance, by Raymond Tyler & Paul Buhle (eds.) (Toronto: Between the Lines, 2025) $34.95 / 9781771136525
“In this intimate account, Comox Valley writer Joline Martin uniquely focuses on the draft resisters who came to Vancouver Island and became Canadians.” Ron Verzuh reviews War Resisters: Standing Against the Vietnam War, by Joline Martin (Qualicum Beach: Caitlin Press, 2025) $26 / 9781773861685
“…the memoir They Never Left Me, written by a Holocaust survivor, Evelyn Kahn, assisted by her daughter Hodie Kahn, is very different and extremely powerful.” Valerie Green reviews They Never Left Me: A Holocaust Memoir of Maternal Courage and Triumph, by Evelyn Kahn with Hodie Kahn (Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2025) $22.95 / 9781553807322
“Hill presents a compelling case for Antifa relevance in its fight against racism, fascism, and authoritarianism, providing a detailed history of events in our past, so we can better understand our probable future.” Jeffrey Stychin reviews The Antifa Comic Book: Revised and Expanded, by Gord Hill (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2025) $24.95 / 9781834050041
“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.
“However, this book is not an art history book; it is aimed at immersing oneself in beading right now. It’s an excellent and easy-to-follow guide with clear instructions and illustrations. First published in 1996, its importance is ongoing. Don’t be limited by the word ‘beginners’ in the title. Though it is perfect for beginners, this book also offers much, much more.” Christina Johnson-Dean reviews Complete Beading for Beginners, by Karen Rempel (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2025) $26.95 / 9781998526222
“In some respects, the school already had a number of carefully nurtured traditions tending in that direction. We played rugger rather than the more plebeian soccer. We competed with several minor public schools at cricket and rugger and, although twelve miles from the River Thames, entered one or two rowing eights in the Head of the River races.” Christopher Levenson recalls his schoolboy days in England in the next instalment of his memoir “Not One of the Boys.”
“In order to give an additional perspective on Castle’s role as photographer in the First World War, the author provides salient details of his role as a photographer in the earlier Balkans war. Here the whole culture of war photography, including camaraderie and competition amongst the journalists, she suggests were a seminal influence on Castle’s sense of his own role.” Theo Dombrowski reviews The Taking of Vimy Ridge: First World War Photographs of William Ivor Castle, by Carla-Jean Stokes (Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2025) $64.99 / 9781771126984
“In Humans, Finkel leads us through a breathtaking sweep of 300,000 years of human history. He starts with early hunter and gatherer societies that, being egalitarian, co-operative, and peaceful, reflected intrinsic human nature. Those societies, he continues, have much to teach us.” Robin Fisher reviews Humans: The 300,000-Year Struggle for Equality, by Alvin Finkel (Toronto: James Lorimer & Company, 2025) $25.95 / 9781459419544
“That pièce de résistance of mine was a bit outré, a bit de trop no doubt, more a jeu d’esprit than a tour de force. However, it does make the point that great herds of French words are roaming at large through the English language, often with totally different meanings from those they have in French. Etiquette for instance simply means a label in French. How many of these terms are current also in contemporary US or Canadian, Australian, or New Zealand English? I don’t know. I simply am not au courant.” Christopher Levenson contributes the essay On Permanent Loan to The British Columbia Review.
“Controlled in recording the objections and counterarguments to Vrba’s claims, Twigg nevertheless has established such a firm sense of his own authority and knowledge that it is hard not to feel that most readers, like Twigg himself, will be deeply affected by Vrba’s words.” Theo Dombrowski reviews Holocaust Hero: The Life and Times of Rudolf Vrba, by Alan Twigg (Richmond Hill, ON: Firefly Books, 2025) $29.95 / 9780228105718
“The strength of Martin’s book, and its value as an analysis of the Canadian experience in Afghanistan, is in the way that he personifies the political experience of the Afghan war through his anecdotes. There is a point where he elucidates the three circles of power in Afghanistan – the first being the local power brokers and warlords, the second being the government of the democratic regime, and the third being the international forces.” Matthew Downey reviews Unwinnable Peace: Untold Stories of Canada’s Mission in Afghanistan, by Tim Martin (New Westminster: Tidewater Press, 2024) $24.95 / 9781990160349
“Mayer is keenly aware of the wider challenges that face all the islands of the Pacific and the contribution that museums can make to understanding, and perhaps even addressing them.” Robin Fisher reviews Sea of Islands: Exploring Objects, Stories and Memories from Oceania, by Carol E. Mayer (Vancouver: Museum of Anthropology and Figure 1 Publishing, 2025) $55 / 9781773271552
“It identified approximately where Frederich Trump’s Arctic Hotel/restaurant/brothel had been located in 1901. The Arctic had originally been built in Bennett, BC, but when the railroad was completed to Whitehorse in 1900, he dismantled the hotel, moved the lumber to Whitehorse along with all the fixings and rebuilt on a waterfront location facing the White Pass depot and the Yukon River.” Yukon Story Laureate John Firth writes about the connection between an old BC/Yukon business venture and the current president of the United States
“This must have been my first long journey. At the age of six it was certainly the event that made the greatest continuous impression on me, and the almost three years that it introduced, from November 1940, after much of the worst of the Blitz and the Battle of Britain had already been endured, to the Autumn of 1943, when we returned to London just in time for the Doodlebugs, the V1 Flying Bombs, gave me a different perspective on English life from what I would otherwise have had in suburban London, where I was to live for the rest of my childhood and adolescence.” Christopher Levenson contributes the introductory part of his memoir, Not One of the Boys.
“Readers of Ted Binnema’s The Vancouver Island Treaties will gain a greater insight into a formative piece of British Columbia history. For this book is history as it should be. Here is how it is done.” Robin Fisher reviews The Vancouver Island Treaties and the Evolving Principles of Indigenous Title, by Ted Binnema (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2025) $44.95 / 9781487554095
“Although he isn’t related to George Vancouver’s former botanist and surgeon aboard the HMS Discovery, Archibald Menzies experienced extraordinary times, times that Graeme Menzies felt had to be shared. The result was the book Bones: The Life and Adventures of Doctor Archibald Menzies, in which Graeme Menzies tells of how the doctor used reason and his senses, as well as his familiarity of the Scottish clan system, to understand what he found as the lone scientist on board that British vessel of exploration.” Trevor Marc Hughes presents an interview segment featuring Vancouver author and historian Graeme Menzies.
“With the budget and size of the current gallery, it had become difficult to adequately show the collection and avoid being just a storehouse. Hence, the wise decision to have a rotating exhibition for the next five years, so that the public can appreciate the depth and breadth of the collection.” Christina Johnson-Dean reviews the exhibition A View from Here: Re-Imagining the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria Collections curated by Steven McNeil and Heng Wu.
“Adam Jones’s book can help each of us in reaching a principled position, in articulating it, and in understanding why others might rationally have arrived at and articulated a different view.” Richard Butler reviews Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction (4th ed.), by Adam Jones (New York: Routledge, 2024) $61.99 / 9781032028101
“But Archibald – author Graeme Menzies uses his given name rather than his surname – is vocally against the plundering and abuse of the First Nations his ships encountered. In fact, he befriended them during his two round-the-world voyages that brought him to the west coast of Vancouver Island.” Ron Verzuh reviews Bones: The Life and Adventures of Doctor Archibald Menzies, by Graeme Menzies (Dunbeath, Scotland: Whittles Publishing, 2024) $23.95 / 9781849955911
