First published Dec. 7, 2017. Island of the Blue Foxes: Disaster and Triumph on Bering’s Great Voyage to Alaska by Stephen R. Bown (D&M $34.95) tells the story of The Great Northern Expedition which resulted in the mapping of the Arctic Coast of Siberia and large parts of the North American coastline, and the discovery…
Read more #215 Island of Blue Foxes
Dirty Windshields: The Best and the Worst of the Smugglers Tour Diaries by Grant Lawrence Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2017 $26.95 / 9781771621489 Reviewed by Dustin Cole First published Dec. 6, 2017 * Grant Lawrence’s memoir Dirty Windshields recalls his days and nights as lead singer in the garage rock band Smugglers, Canada’s self-proclaimed…
Read more #214 At home on the road
First published Dec. 4, 2017. Chasing Smoke. A Wildfire Memoir by Aaron Williams Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2017. $22.95 / 9781550178050 Reviewed by Dan Gallacher The threat of terrorism is over-rated. ‘First responders’ were everywhere in 2017 dealing with hurricanes, earthquakes and forest fires. Aaron Williams’ Chasing Smoke: A Wildfire Memoir (Harbour $22.95)…
Read more #213 The forest smokeaters
First published Nov. 29, 2017. Our Vanishing Glaciers: The Snows of Yesteryear and the Future Climate of the Mountain West by Robert William Sandford Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books 2017. $40 / 9781771602020 Reviewed by Clayton Whitt Melting glaciers and climate change may initially seem like odd topics for a coffee table book. But…
Read more #212 Our vanishing glaciers
Essay: The Mysterious and Difficult Hermann Otto Tiedemann by Robert Ratcliffe Taylor First published November 26, 2017 * In this essay written specially for The Ormsby Review, Robert (Rob) Ratcliffe Taylor provides biography of Hermann Otto Tiedemann (1821-1891), the German-born surveyor, engineer, architect, and artist. He was one of thousands attracted to Victoria by the…
Read more #211 From Prussia to Victoria
Hallowed Ground: Stories of the Yale Pioneer Cemetery by Ian Brown Victoria: FriesenPress, 2017 $23.95 / 9781525508646 [Available at the Hope Visitor Centre and at Barry’s Trading Post in Yale.] Reviewed by Yvonne Van Ruskenveld First published Nov. 24, 2017 * If time machines ever become a reality, I’ll be first in line to travel…
Read more #210 Of strawberries & cemeteries
First published Nov. 24, 2017. Jeannie Kamins has written and published a VFMF history with a memoir by Gary Cristall who says, “I guess I booked pretty close to 1,000 artists.” For $25 plus shipping costs, 40 Years and Counting: A Visual History of Forty Years of the Vancouver Folk Music Festival (Jeannie Kamins, 2017)…
Read more #209 Gary Cristall’s ball
Edges of Empire: A Documentary by Rhodri Jones (Rhodri Windsor-Liscombe) Vancouver: Rarebit Press, 2017 $20.00 / 9780994941237 Reviewed by Julian Wake First published Nov. 23, 2017 * Born in 1946, Rhodri Windsor-Liscombe studied at the Courtauld Institute of Art at the University of London and came to Canada to teach art history at McGill in…
Read more #208 An intellectual journey
Royal Blood: A Memoir by Laurenda Daniells Vancouver: Paper Trail Publishing, 2016 $22.95 / 9780994930309 Reviewed by Nancy Marguerite Anderson First published Nov. 22, 2017 * Royal Blood, by Laurenda Daniells, is a memoir in the form of a collection of short stories written by a woman who has clearly led a long, interesting, and…
Read more #207 From the HBC to UBC
First published No. 22, 2017. Ask someone to name B.C.’s most popular poet and you might hear names such as Earle Birney, bill bissett, Patrick Lane, Susan Musgrave, Dorothy Livesay… None match the fervour of adoration this province felt for Robbie Burns–as Fred Braches recalls upon rediscovering a little-known book about the Burns statue in…
Read more #206 Robbie Burns remembered
First published Nov. 24 REVIEW: Reluctant Warriors: Canadian Conscripts and the Great War by Patrick M. Dennis Vancouver: UBC Press, 2017. $39.95 9780774835978 Reviewed by Jim Kempling The ongoing centennial review of Canada’s involvement in the First World War continues with Reluctant Warriors: Canadian Conscripts and the Great War, by Patrick Dennis. After three years…
Read more #205 125,000 reluctant patriots
At Home in Nature: A Life of Unknown Mountains and Deep Wilderness by Rob Wood Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2017 $22.00 / 9781771602518 Reviewed by John Gellard First published November 20, 2017 * Rob Wood might have saved my life … or at least my left foot. Some years ago I fell off a log…
Read more #204 Climbing bard of Maurelle Island
The Transcontinentalist: Or, The Joys of the Road Manuscript in the Laing Papers at the B.C. Archives, written in 1915 by Hamilton Mack Laing Reviewed by Trevor Marc Hughes First published Nov. 17, 2017 * Editor’s note: We are delighted that Trevor Marc Hughes has ventured into the voluminous Laing Papers at the British Columbia…
Read more #203 Mack, the life
First published November 17th, 2017. “Whatever I’m doing belongs right here in Vancouver.” — Al Neil, author/pianist (The Cellar 1959) “New York has William Burroughs, Los Angeles has Charles Bukowski and Vancouver has Al Neil,” — local author John Armstrong “Al Neil gets more pleasure out of walking down the road than other people get…
Read more #202 Al Neil (1924-2017)
A GATHERING TO REMEMBER AND HONOUR PETER TROWER WILL BE HELD FROM 3 – 6 PM AT THE FORMER LOCATION OF THE RAILWAY CLUB IN VANCOUVER ON SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 25. THE VENUE IS NOW CALLED THE RAILWAY STAGE AND BEER CAFE. IT’S AT 579 DUNSMUIR. Peter Trower, one B.C.’s most beloved poets, has died at…
Read more #201 Peter Trower (1930-2017)
First published November 10, 2017 Emily Carr As I Knew Her by Carol Pearson, with a foreword by Robert Amos. Victoria: Touchwood Editions, 2016. $19.95 / 9781771511742 Reviewed by Kerry Mason * Our understanding of the internationally significant artist and author, Emily Carr, is enriched by this overdue reprint of Carol Pearson’s Emily Carr…
Read more #200 Emily’s compartmentalized friend
Heckman’s Canadian Pacific: A Photographic Journey by Ralph Beaumont, foreword by John Geiger Mississauga, ON: The Credit Valley Railway Company, 2015 $60.00 / 9780978440619 Reviewed by Walter Volovsek First published November 9, 2017 * The Canadian Pacific Railway’s in-house photographer Joseph William Heckman (1854-1937) worked between Nova Scotia and Vancouver Island for three decades, photographing…
Read more #199 What the Heckman
Blood, Sweat, and Fear: The Story of Inspector Vance, Vancouver’s First Forensic Investigator by Eve Lazarus Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2017 $21.95 / 9781551526850 Reviewed by Bonnie Reilly Schmidt First published Nov. 8, 2017 * In Blood, Sweat, and Fear: The Story of Inspector Vance, Vancouver’s First Forensic Investigator Eve Lazarus rescues one of…
Read more #198 Inspector Vance, I presume?
Powering Up Canada A History of Power, Fuel, and Energy from 1600 by Ruth Sandwell (editor) Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2016. $37.95 / 9780773547865 Reviewed by Dan Gallacher First published Nov. 7, 2017 Years ago I likened history to a diamond. Each time it is turned in the light, another facet is revealed….
Read more #197 Power to the people
Spindrift: A Canadian Book of the Sea by Michael L. Hadley and Anita Hadley (editors), with illustrations by Matthew Wolferstan Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2017 $36.95 / 9781771621731 Reviewed by Theo Dombrowski First published Nov. 6, 2017 * This is an anthology with something like a mission. In “Waypoints,” his foreword to this anthology, historian…
Read more #196 Batten down the anthology