The Hidden Journals: Captain Vancouver and his Mapmaker by Mary Tasi and Wade Baker Vancouver: Sky Spirit, 2015$20 / 9780993843815 Reviewed by Mike Starr First published Feb. 8, 2017 * This book is not a scholarly study, but Wade Baker and Mary Tasi have accomplished something that many scholars would trade their tenure to do….
Read more #83 Vancouver and his mapmaker
A Queer Love Story: The Letters of Jane Rule and Rick Beboutby Marilyn R. Schuster (editor) Vancouver: UBC Press, 2017$50 / 9780774835435 Reviewed by Alan Twigg First published Feb. 7, 2017 * “I hope I’m remembered for being lusty, feisty and full of life.”— Jane Rule People who knew Jane Rule are still saying to…
Read more #82 Jane’s ruling aphorisms
J. Fenwick Lansdowne by Tristram Lansdowne (editor) Portland, OR: Pomegranate Communications, 2014 US $65.00 / 9780764966705 Reviewed by Briony Penn First published Feb. 7, 2017 * A fixture of Victoria’s artistic, cultural, and natural communities for five decades, James Fenwick Lansdowne (1937-2008) is now the subject of a book edited by his son Tristram, featuring…
Read more #81 Portraits of Fenwick Lansdowne
Wade Davis: Photographs by Wade Davis Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2016 $14.99 / 9781771621243 Reviewed by David Mattison First published Feb. 4, 2017 * To say that Wade Davis has had an extraordinary, brilliant, and in the end very lucky career would be a great understatement. Originally from West Vancouver, he returned to his…
Read more #80 The photography of Wade Davis
Ootsa Lake Odyssey: George and Else Seel — A Pioneer Life on the Headwaters of the Nechako Watershed by Jay Sherwood Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2016 $24.95 / 9781987915211 Reviewed by Sage Birchwater First published Jan. 18, 2017 * Ootsa Lake Odyssey follows the lives of George and Else Seel, who worked in the Nechako…
Read more #75 Nechako before the flood
The Amazing Mazie Baker: the Squamish Nation’s Warrior Elder by Kay Johnston Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2016 $24.95 / 9781987915068 Reviewed by Dorothy Kennedy First published Jan. 14, 2017 * In The Amazing Mazie Baker, Kay Johnston exposes the life and work of Mazie Baker (born 1931), the Squamish gadfly and firebrand who exposed irregularities…
Read more #72 Squamish matriarch and firebrand
ESSAY: Canadian First: The Life of Won Alexander Cumyow (1861-1955) by Janet Mary Nicol First published Dec. 28, 2016 * Canada’s west coast accommodated “two solitudes”—people of the dominant English-speaking community and those of Asian heritage. One man who tried to bridge these separate, often hostile worlds was Vancouver pioneer, Won Alexander Cumyow. He was…
Read more #68 Won Alexander Cumyow
Christy Clark: Behind the Smileby Judi Tyabji Victoria: Heritage House, 2016$32.95 / 9781772031065 Reviewed by John Douglas Belshaw First published Dec. 17, 2016 * This book is neither fish nor fowl. Judi Tyabji, a former MLA who broke with the Liberal Party in an acrimonious split, states at the outset that this is not a…
Read more #65 The Christy Clark Liberal era
ESSAY: From Jalna to timber baron: reflections on the life of H.R. MacMillan by Ron Dart First published Dec. 16, 2016 * For good or ill, Harvey Reginald (H.R.) MacMillan (1885-1976) is a name synonymous with the forestry business in British Columbia. Those with a flagging or limited memory will have some minimal sense of…
Read more #64 From Jalna to timber baron
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
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 Two stimulating additions to the literature on the Canadian…
Read more #59 From Civil Gothic to Modern
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
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
Pioneer merchant Louis Oppenheim: not Oppenheimer by Bonnie Ellen Campbell First published Nov. 14, 2016 * Editor’s note: Bonnie Campbell assumed she was English. As a young adult she was surprised to learn that her grandmother was the daughter of a Prussian-Jewish merchant Louis Oppenheim, of Yale, and his wife Nukwa (Hannah) of Spuzzum, daughter…
Read more #42 Nukwa and the merchant of Yale
All for the Greed of Gold: Will Woodin’s Klondike Adventure by Catherine Spude (editor) Pullman, WA: Washington State University Press, 2016 US $27.95 / 978-0874223354 Reviewed by Robert G. McCandless First published November 9, 2016 * Our history of the past 100 years seems so dominated by wars and their consequences that we have forgotten…
Read more #40 Windy Arm, Tutchi, Tagish Lake
by Michael Sasges ESSAY: For Remembrance Day 2016, Michael Sasges has reconstructed the life of Nicola Valley rancher John Foster Paton Nash. First published Nov. 7, 2016 * Introduction. There are three memorials for Nash–at his school in England; in the English village where he lived briefly with his wife; and at his home in…
Read more #39 From Quilchena Creek to Flanders
Paid Price: The Fight for First Nations Survival By Bev Sellars Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2016 $19.95 9780889229723 Reviewed by Eldon Yellowhorn First published November 7, 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 of…
Read more #38 Fact, myth, and powerpoint
Aloha Wanderwell: The Border-Smashing, Record-Setting Life of the World’s Youngest Explorer Fredericton, New Brunswick: Goose Lane Editions, 2016 by Christian Fink-Jensen and Randolph Eustace-Walden $24.95 / 9780864928955 Reviewed by Bonnie Reilly Schmidt First published October 31, 2016 * Introduction: Recently BC’s remarkable Aloha Wanderwell (born Idris Hall, 1906-1996) was recognized by the Guinness Book of…
Read more #35 Canada’s forgotten superstar
ESSAY: Across the Bright Continent: Althea Moody, Missionary and Artist in Western Canada by Jennifer Iredale First published October 21, 2016 * Introduction: Missionary, linguist, educator, and artist Althea Moody (1865-1930) spent twenty years (1891-1911) teaching at the Anglican Church’s All Hallows School in Yale. This school admitted both “Indian” and “White” girls, making it…
Read more #29 Althea Moody and All Hallows
by Mark Stanton and Allan Twigg Jim Douglas called himself “just a book pedlar.” At age 15, he started in the book biz in Edinburgh delivering books to bookstores by peddling his bicycle. He became the most influential publishing presence in B.C. during the 1970s and early 1980s. Here [below], The Ormsby Review is pleased…
Read more #25 Remembering Jim Douglas