Posts by Ken McGoogan
The Best of Celtic Life 2019
Wonderful to see this excerpt from Flight of the Highlanders turn up in The Best of Celtic Life 2019. The 100-page magazine features an array of articles on everything from Celtic Folklore to Celtic Genealogy and Celebrating Celtic Culture. FLIGHT OF THE HIGHLANDERS Chapter 3: The Old Way of Life In the Celtic tradition, “Thin…
Read MoreYo, OTTAWA! Gonna be like CHICAGO!
Yo, OTTAWA! Here comes the night! Peeps are awakening to the news that awarding-winning author and Royal Canadian Geographical Society Fellow Ken McGoogan is coming your way next Tuesday evening (December 3). It says here that in performance, Ken may well remind you of Richard Gere in CHICAGO, you know where he sings and dances and…
Read MoreDead Reckoning still sailing with Franklin
With Flight of the Highlanders roaring along nicely (thank you very much), it’s wonderful to see an Alaska publication (Stock Daily Dish) giving Dead Reckoning a bit of love – doing its part to keep the paperback edition thriving here and here and in better independent bookstores. Yesterday, the newspaper published an article in which its regular…
Read MoreHighlanders flying high as “terrific, timely”
Authors enjoy few things more than positive reviews . . . especially during the run-up to Christmas. Below, excerpts from four different takes on Flight of the Highlanders: The Making of Canada . . . Celtic Life International: Best-selling author Ken McGoogan “deep dives into the historical horror of Scottish Highlanders in this terrific and…
Read MoreThe River Battles started with an email
KEN MCGOOGAN / SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL In July, 2014, Canadian historian Mark Zuehlke received an e-mail from Italy. A history institute based in Ravenna was inviting him to give the keynote address at a conference celebrating the 70th anniversary of “the liberation of many towns in our province, Ravenna. … All the towns were…
Read MoreDescendant adds detail to a violent Clearance
It’s always great to get a glowing review. But nothing beats the kind of email I’ve just received from Carol Annett, who was born a MacKinnon. Those who have read Flight of the Highlanders will recall that Chapter One treats the violent eviction of a great number of McKinnons from Knoydart in 1853. It draws on…
Read MoreTrouble at Indigo? Bring back Canadiana!
Indigo Books and Music is having a bad year. Canada’s number one book retailer is dealing with declining sales. Compared with this time last year, sales are down roughly eight per cent. Those who want detailed figures can find them easily enough. Indigo CEO Heather Reisman points to some “promising early results on key performance measures.”…
Read MoreThe Great Famine marked Ireland forever
(In the December issue of Celtic Life International, I write about ranging around Ireland while exploring the many dimensions of the Irish famine.) It’s not all that far to Tipperary – not if you start in Kilkenny and make for the Famine Warhouse at the eastern edge of that song-famous county. We simply drove west…
Read MoreYo, Toronto writers! Here comes Halifax . . .
OK, so you’ve heard about the two-year, low-residency MFA program in Creative Nonfiction at University of King’s College in Halifax? Here we see the classes of 2020 and 2021, together with a few mentors and faculty, saying hello from last August. These folks are passionate about writing and, yes, that’s unmistakably me in the back…
Read MoreWorried about Scheer? OK, take a valium
So you’ve heard Andrew Scheer blowing smoke about how the party that wins the most seats forms the government? Nope, that’s NOT how things work in Canada. The party able to gain the confidence of the House of Commons (win a vote) forms the government. Clarity, you want? In the current House, to claim a majority,…
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