Peter Mansbridge says hey to Dead Reckoning
“I’m just finishing Ken McGoogan’s recent work, Dead Reckoning. It may well be the 20th book I’ve read about Arctic exploration, and you’d think the ground of those who tried to find a Northwest Passage has been well trodden with nothing left to say. Wrongo, buckwheat! There’s always more, especially when you can write like McGoogan. The…
Read MorePaperback edition saves 40%
Author copies! Hats off to HarperCollins Canada for making this paperback edition a reality despite the COVID logjam. The hardcover did so well at $33 that they produced this trade paperback, suddenly available in better bookstores and online for $20. And bonus: the back cover carries some wonderful quick hits from reviewers. You can…
Read MoreScotland awake to celebrating John Rae
By Mike Merritt (The Herald / Scotland) OVERLOOKING the sea, with views of neighbouring islands, it is enough to inspire a spirit of adventure in any youngster. Now the childhood Orkney home which helped to inspire the man described as the greatest Arctic explorer of his age is set to undergo a multimillion pound restoration…
Read MoreScottish Trilogy Still Marching in Canada
So a friend who lives in Hants County, Nova Scotia — the county in which my mother was born and raised — sent me a link to a podcast I have never heard, but which finds me talking about How the Scots Invented Canada. For sure that’s something people want to hear, right? Voila: click…
Read MoreChasing Lemurs dazzles early readers
For nineteen months, while in her mid-twenties, Keriann McGoogan lived and worked in Madagascar, spending twelve-hour days following groups of lemurs through the northwestern dry forests. She was leading a research team of Malagasy men, only one of whom spoke English or French. What could possibly go wrong? In her forthcoming book, Chasing Lemurs, McGoogan brings…
Read MoreF*cking with Narrative in T.O.?
Sounds dangerously radical, I know. But that, I’m afraid, is today’s burning question. It surfaces here because a fabulous writers’ conference is coming to Toronto and I play a small part in it. The annual gathering of the Creative Nonfiction Collective will take place at the University of Toronto (Emmanuel College) from May 8 to 10. Born…
Read MoreFatal Passage still working magic
Big shoutout to the John Rae Society and the editors who put together the latest Aglooka Advisor (Winter 2019). The editors asked people who take out membership in the Society why they decided to join. Two recent members replied and both mentioned the first of my five books on Arctic exploration. Neil Ferguson noted: “A…
Read MoreChasing Lemurs is The Book of the season!
For nineteen months, starting when she was twenty-five, Keriann McGoogan lived and worked in the wilds of Madagascar. She spent twelve-hour days following groups of lemurs through the northwestern dry forests. Previously, she had spent six months in Belize studying black howler monkeys. All this was in aid of earning a PhD in biological anthropology and…
Read MoreEpic Glades highlight Quebec ski spectacular
Let the record show that we brought in the New Year — and indeed the New Decade — on the slopes. Video maker Carlin McGoogan produced a hi-res version of Epic Glades complete with rollicking Quebecois music — but Blogger refused to accommodate bells and whistles. Sorry to see that Carlin himself, by-far our best skiier,…
Read MoreIrish revolutionary murdered for embracing Canadian pluralism
(In the February issue of Celtic Life International, I write about Thomas D’Arcy McGee, the Irish revolutionary who became the great Canadian champion of minorities and First Nations.) On April 7, 1868, after participating in a late-running session in the Canadian House of Commons, the most eloquent democrat ever to emerge from the Irish diaspora…
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