Guilty But Insane. J.C. Bowen-Colthurst: Villain or Victim? by James W. Taylor Cork, Ireland: Mercier Press, 2016 €14.99 / 9781781174210 Reviewed by Joe Simpson First published Dec. 14, 2016 * In Guilty But Insane, James W. Taylor traces the life of British Army officer Captain John Bowen-Colthurst of the Royal Irish Rifles. A veteran of campaigns in India, Tibet,…
Read more #63 An Imperial crackpot in BC
I Am a Métis: The Story of Gerry St. Germain by Peter O’Neil Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2016 $32.95 / 9781550177848 First published Dec. 10, 2016 * Jean Barman reviews Peter O’Neil’s I Am a Métis: The Story of Gerry St. Germain, a noteworthy account of Senator Gerry St. Germain’s journey from Grantown, Manitoba, to…
Read more #62 Coming out as Métis
The Last Gang in Town: The Epic Story of the Vancouver Police vs. the Clark Park Gang by Aaron Chapman Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2016 $24.95 / 9781551526713 Reviewed by Lanni Russwurm First published Dec. 8, 2016 * In The Last Gang in Town, Aaron Chapman tells the story of the Clark Park Gang, named…
Read more #61 Street fighting men
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
The First Signs: Unlocking the Mysteries of the World’s Oldest Symbols by Genevieve von Petzinger New York: Simon & Schuster, 2016 $36.0 (U.S.) / 9781476785493 Reviewed by Chris Arnett First published Dec. 2, 2016 * In The First Signs: Unlocking the Mysteries of the World’s Oldest Symbols, Genevieve von Petzinger explores the geometric images found…
Read more #57 Decoding European rock art
Live Souls: Citizens and Volunteers of Civil War Spain by Serge Alternês and Alec Wainman Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2015 $24.95 / 9781553804376 Reviewed by Larry Hannant First published Dec. 2, 2016 * Live Souls: Citizens and Volunteers of Civil War Spain contains the stunning documentary record of 1,650 photos taken over three years in Spain…
Read more #56 A Quaker in the Spanish Civil War
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
ESSAY: Putin’s Potemkin village by Marina Sonkina First published October 27, 2016 * Every two years, Russian-born fiction writer Marina Sonkina of Vancouver takes her SFU and UBC students for a field trip to Russia to enhance their appreciation of the literature, art and cultural history they have been studying — and it keeps getting…
Read more #53 Marina Sonkina’s Russia
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
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
None of This Was Planned: The Stories Behind the Stories by Mike McCardell Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2016 $29.95 / 9781550177787 Reviewed by Bill Engleson First published November 27, 2016 * In None of This Was Planned, veteran newspaper and TV reporter Mike McCardell reveals his MO for gathering stories. Reviewer Bill Engleson teases out…
Read more #50 Make it up as you go along
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
The Hockey Scribbler by George Bowering Toronto: ECW Press, 2016 $19.95 / 9781770412897 Reviewed by Bruce McDougall First published November 16, 2016 * If a mere hockey player like Wayne Gretzky were to write a book in which he criticized poets for ripping the feet off their anapests and bludgeoning scansion into a bloody pulp,…
Read more #44 Freeze the book in the corner