Posts by Ken McGoogan
Adventure Canada joins HarperCollins in launching the Scots
So how cool was that? We had a bagpiper precede me to the stage, we had publisher Phyllis Bruce of HarperCollins Canada produce a bottle of champagne, and we had Matthew Swan announce a fantastic contest involving the book and my next voyage with Adventure Canada. The book is How the Scots Invented Canada. The…
Read MoreMissing Amundsen photo turns up in Yellowknife museum
Here’s the “final answer” as reported in The Gazette. . . . By KEN MCGOOGAN A Yellowknife heritage centre holds the final answer to questions raised by the opening of an Arctic “mystery box” excavated from a cairn in Gjoa Haven, Nunavut. The wooden box, according to those who opened it Friday in Ottawa, contained…
Read MoreNo Franklin, no Amundsen: Why the delay?
So the box contains no Franklin items. For that I was ready. But nothing related to Roald Amundsen? That was a surprise. But then my old friend Louie Kamookak clarified for me. He was one of the two men with whom I once placed a plaque on the coast of Boothia Peninsula to honour the…
Read MoreU.K. authors battling for Public Lending Right
It’s a bad movie that we don’t want to see playing in local theatres any time soon. Authors in the U.K. are mobilizing to stop the government from making cuts to the national Public Lending Right, which provides authors with a payment of six pence each time one of their books is checked out from…
Read MoreThere WILL be bagpipes . . .
If you live in the Centre of the Universe, or even if you’re just visiting, there WILL be bagpipes at this bookish bash . . . for reasons that may well be obvious. Come on down!
Read MoreWould you believe another discovery of Franklin relics?
At first I was sceptical. But the more I looked at it, the more interested I became. A British adventurer, a TV-show-host named Bear Grylls, reports happening upon a possible Franklin site, complete with graves, on a tiny island in Wellington Strait, northeast of King William Island. That story turned up in the U.K. in…
Read MoreHow the Scots Invented Canada
Our Hero is heading for Halifax, Montreal, and Sherbooke to launch his new book, How the Scots Invented Canada. On October 12, his 7 p.m. appearance at Woodlawn Public Library (Dartmouth) will be televised for broadcast by Podium TV. Two weeks later, on Oct. 28, Ken will be in Montreal at the Atwater Public Library…
Read MoreOur “mystery box” goes national . . .
Click on the above title and look to the right to see how our mystery-box story looked when it turned up on The National . . . All that’s left is the Great Reveal, which should happen around Sept. 29 . . . VIDEO: 3:06 * Franklin Expedition box unearthed An Inuit family says a…
Read MoreArctic mystery box linked to Roald Amundsen
So here’s a follow-up article that has been picked up across Canada from Montreal to Vancouver. By Ken McGoogan Special to the Gazette An old wooden box excavated from beneath an Arctic cairn is being flown unopened to Ottawa Monday from the Nunavut hamlet of Gjoa Haven. The Nunavut-government launched the excavation after an Inuit…
Read MoreThe Holy Grail of Arctic exploration history
The voyage came courtesy of Adventure Canada, which brought me aboard as a resource historian. The Montreal Gazette published the story on Sept. 3. The Vancouver Sun picked it up immediately. The excavation of the cairn may take three or four days. By Ken McGoogan Special to the Gazette GJOA HAVEN, King William Island, Nunavut…
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