Britannia’s Navy on the West Coast of North America, 1812-1914 by Barry Gough Victoria: Heritage House, 2016 $29.99 / 9781772031102 Reviewed by Howard Macdonald Stewart First published Feb. 23, 2017 * Readers will know that Barry Gough, British Columbia’s premier naval historian, is equally seadog and landlubber. His torrid pace in retirement has included major…
Read more #93 BC’s naval heritage
The Queen of the North Disaster: The Captain’s Story by Colin Henthorne Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2016 $24.95 / 9781550177619 Reviewed by Jan Drent First published Feb. 8, 2017 * Ten years after the sinking of the Queen of the North in 2006, the vessel’s captain, Colin Henthorne, provides a first-hand account of why the…
Read more #84 The coast was not clear
Casting Back: Sixty Years of Fishing and Writing by Peter McMullan Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2016 $25.00 / 9781771601740 Reviewed by Ian J.M. Kennedy First published Nov. 29, 2016 * In Casting Back: Sixty Years of Fishing and Writing, Peter McMullan, the former editor of the Nanaimo Free Press, conveys his passion for fly-fishing in his…
Read more #52 A fishing journalist looks on
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
The Woods: A Year on Protection Island by Amber McMillan Gibsons: Nightwood Editions, 2016 $19.95 / 9780889713291 Reviewed by Howard Macdonald Stewart First published October 26, 2016 * Amber McMillan is a poet from Toronto now living, happily I hope, on the Sunshine Coast. She has written a highly personal account of her disappointing year…
Read more #31 Amber McMillan learns the ropes
The Killer Whale Who Changed the World by Mark Leiren-Young Vancouver: Greystone Books with the David Suzuki Institute, 2016 $29.95 / 9781771641937 Reviewed by Daniel Francis First published Oct. 17, 2016 * My most memorable encounter with a killer whale occurred in 1987. Newly returned home after sixteen years living in eastern Canada, I thought…
Read more #26 A whale named Moby Doll
David Thompson’s cartography, his endurance, his consistent respect for Aboriginal peoples, his pathfinding, his versatility in at least six languages and his prodigious literary legacy qualify him as the most under-celebrated hero in Canadian history. First Published: August 10th, 2015 — compiled by Allan Twigg The second in a planned three volumes of David Thompson’s…
Read more #9 David Thompson
“At long last the people of Canada have suitably marked the spot where British history on the North-west Pacific Coast had its real beginnings” — H.N. Sage First published: January 20th, 2016 “It seemed as if the mists of time had rolled away and that we were back again with Captain Cook on the deck…
Read more #2 The Mecca of B.C. is Friendly Cove