A ‘fairy tale wedding’ provides a novelist with the opportunity to create “a chaotic, soul-baring, multi-generational family drama.” —Bill Paul reviews The Wedding, by Gurjinder Basran (Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2024) $24.95 / 9781771624169
“In a regionalized case of a murder that occurred in the heart of British Columbia, deep in its rural country, Warren asks his readers to draw upon universal empathetic feelings of disgust at the crimes of Shearing and sympathy for those impacted.” —Matthew Downey reviews Murder Times Six: The True Story of the Wells Gray Park Murders, by Alan R. Warren (Self-published, 2020) $20.00 / 9781989980132
“It seems to me that Kevin’s book documents his research into myriad formal and semantic possibilities, engaging in a practice that endeavours to stretch poetic narratives and structures.” —Steven Ross Smith reviews A Bouquet Brought Back from Space, by Kevin Spenst (Vancouver: Anvil Press Publishers, 2024) $18.00 / 9781772142259
Uneven sophomore novel features sisters Rumer and Charlotte, “city girls fleeing parental bonds and disaffection with university studies.” —Trish Bowering reviews Hotel Beringia, by Mix Hart (New Westminster: Tidewater Press, 2024) $24.95 / 9781990160387
A prettily-drawn, well-told tale about the founding of the famous gardens, but maybe a touch light on child-friendly details. —Ron Verzuh reviews Jennie Butchart: Gardener of Dreams, by Haley Healey (illustrated by Kimiko Fraser) (Victoria: Heritage House, 2024) $19.95 / 9781772034813
A poet “at the height of his powers” meditates on his literary tradition, provincial history, and aging. —Harold Rhenisch reviews The Capital City of Autumn, by Tim Bowling (Hamilton: Wolsak and Wynn, 2024) $20.00 / 9781989496862
Novel recreates life of a rural farm collective circa 1969…
Amy Whitmore reviews Commune, by Des Kennedy (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing 2023) $24.95 / 9781990776519
Family revelations, social upheaval, and war’s brutality captured in historical fiction…
Vanessa Winn reviews ‘Destiny’ and ‘Legacy,’ by Valerie Green (Surrey: Hancock House, 2023) $24.95
First Published: October 14th, 2014 Born in 1880 on a farm in Indiana, Alys McKey began flying in 1912 in Los Angeles after answering an ad: “Wanted: young lady to learn to fly for exhibition purposes.” The ad was created by Fred Bennett and John Bryant of the Bennett Aero Company. McKey became the first…
Read more #11 Pioneers: Alys McKey Bryant
First Published: August 11th, 2014 The following article about early aviation in B.C. is excerpted from a long article written by Frank H. Ellis and published in the British Columbia Historical Quarterly in October of 1939. It describes how and when William (“Billy”) M. Stark made Canadian aviation history. Before he gained renown as a…
Read more #10 Pioneers: Flying Billy Stark
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 The second in a planned three volumes of David Thompson’s writings, The Writings of David…
Read more #9 David Thompson
“Should any of you boys visit the Sandwich Islands, look up the burial place of my college mate.” Botanist John Goldie (1793-1886) reflecting on David Douglas’s grave First Published: April 04th, 2014 One of the most prominent of the roving fraternity of nineteenth-century plant hunters who scoured North America for plant species new to Europe,…
Read more #7 How the Douglas fir was named
In 1872, a sturdy man, nearly 70, steps onto his front porch, jump rope in hand. He skips for a time, then heads inside to pen a note to his daughter away at school in England to chase away “the cobwebs of colonial training.” He is James Douglas, former governor of Vancouver Island and new…
Read more #5: James Douglas doted on Martha
First Published: April 08th, 2015 In 1902, when he was a nine-year old in Galt, Ontario, Hubert Reginald Evans began his career as a professional writer by composing a limerick in praise of Lipton’s tea for a contest. The now-forgotten verse earned him $1. Hubert Evans later became a professional writer in British Columbia for…
Read more #4 Hubert Evans
“Nanaimo was a mining hamlet of some forty-five buildings in 1857. The name was scarcely known outside Vancouver Island… The Beaver came along about every six months, the Otter more frequently, and an Express canoe occasionally… The chinks between the logs, through which the wind would sough with a shriek of triumph, were plastered up…
Read more #3 When Nanaimo was Colville
“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
Richard Mackie and BCBookLook are teaming up to provide a new vehicle for serious writing about B.C. The Ormsby Review will be named after Margaret Ormsby, the venerable historian who often met with Richard Mackie for tea and talk during her retirement near Vernon. First published September 16th, 2016 * Note: The Ormsby Review was…
Read more #1 Welcome to The Ormsby Review