Uncategorized
Linden MacIntyre succeeds by taking risks
Title: The Wake: The Deadly Legacy of a Newfoundland Tsunami Author: Linden MacIntyre / Genre: Non-fiction / Publisher: HarperCollins KEN MCGOOGAN SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE and mail On Feb. 15, 1965, a retired miner named Rennie Slaney sat down at his kitchen table in St. Lawrence, Nfld., and typed out a five-page, single-spaced document that, as Linden MacIntyre writes…
Read MoreKing of the Beats died 50 years ago
The 50th anniversary of the death of Jack Kerouac, on October 21, is certain to inspire an outpouring of remembrance and might also spark controversy. Certainly the “King of the Beats,” with his Quebecois roots, had a powerful effect on me. In the Sixties, after reading just about everything Kerouac had written, I went on…
Read MoreFirst Highlander Awards celebrate excellence
The first-ever Highlander Awards were conferred yesterday evening at a quiet ceremony involving drams of Lagavulin. Created to mark the launch of Flight of the Highlanders, and consisting of shout-outs, kudos, and widespread recognition, they celebrate excellence in five categories. The Best Bookstore Display Award went to Biblioasis in Windsor, where Theo Hummer went the extra…
Read MoreNew book revels in firsts: talk, series, review
Mine was the first presentation in a first-ever series of author readings that launched today at the Neilson Park Creative Centre in Etobicoke. I called my talk When the Highlanders Came to Canada: Dragging History into the 21st Century. From Type Books, manager Beck Andoff turned up with maybe 30 copies of Flight of the…
Read MoreShouting out to the creators of bestsellerdom
I feel driven to offer up a few shout-outs, starting with the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. The folks there are not only putting me on stage in Ottawa on Dec. 3 but look right: they’re telling the world about that event in stylish fashion. And also inviting people to register (see below). Last year, the…
Read MoreGraeme Gibson speaks of Gentleman Death
In autumn 1999, when we journalists went on strike at the Calgary Herald, fighting to install a union, two visiting Toronto-based writers joined us on the picket line: Graeme Gibson and Margaret Atwood. That meant a lot to us and spoke volumes about the two of them. Six years before that, as the newspaper’s Books…
Read MoreHighlanders invade Toronto Beaches
They said it couldn’t be done. But Highlanders came ashore Sunday morning. It happened in the Toronto Beaches. The invaders move now to Ben McNally Books, the most beautiful (and best-stocked) bookstore in Canada. Kilts, bagpipes, selfies . . . a full-blown signing! Maybe we’ll hear a passage or two. Tuesday 6 p.m. 366 Bay…
Read MoreScottish Studies Society goes the extra mile
OK, so I feel moved to give a shout-out to the Scottish Studies Society, and especially to president and newsletter editor David M. Hunter. The latest Society newsletter, The Scots Canadian, was at the printer when Hunter got wind of Flight of the Highlanders. Nothing daunted, he put together a flyer – noting the book…
Read MoreCoffin Ships carried refugees to Canada
(The October issue of Celtic Life International finds our hero writing of the Coffin Ships that brought famine victims to North America.) Last June, scientists confirmed the identification of the human remains found on the beach at Cap des Rosiers, Quebec. They had come from the 1847 shipwreck of the Carricks of Whitehaven, a famine…
Read MoreChasing Lemurs will surface next Spring
Spring, 2020. Mark your calendar. That’s when Prometheus Books will bring out Chasing Lemurs: My Journey into the Heart of Madagascar. You know: Keriann McGoogan’s first book? The one I heard about ten months ago, while striding into the night with my super-fit, thirty-something daughter? “Oh, I meant to tell you,” Keriann said. “Yes?” I…
Read More