Continuing our new and regular feature here at Historical Fiction.
Each Friday we will publish an historical fact based upon the date. Each fact will be accompanied by a book(s) title and perhaps a review or other snippet.
23rd May 1873 - Today celebrates the day when Canada introduced the North West Mounted Police Force.
The book is Forty Years in Canada by Samuel B Steele, which I have added to my library list.
There is some archive material online for those who, like me have a relative who served in the Mounted Police Force. This archive online is a fascinating resource for the genealogist or someone who is simply curious!
A question about favourite Canadian Historical Fiction is what started this event in the first place. We decided it would be fun for each of us to make a list from our respective countries. So, this is my list of five books that are great examples of historical fiction in Canada. (Okay, so there are six... I added a kid's book last minute...) Early Memory:
Underground to Canada by Barbara Smucker
Taken away from her mother by a ruthless slave trader, all Julilly has left is the dream of freedom. Every day that she spends huddled in the slave trader’s wagon travelling south or working on the brutal new plantation, she thinks about the land where it is possible to be free, a land she and her friend Liza may reach someday. So when workers from the Underground Railroad offer to help the two girls escape, they are ready. But the slave catchers and their dogs will soon be after them…
I read this book in the 4th grade and still remember it. When I got a bit older I bought my own copy and have had it ever since. It is a great novel for younger readers about what it is like to escape slavery in the South in the hopes of making it to freedom in Canada. The main characters are young and the readers would be able to relate to them at least from an age stand-point. It is also a good book in general and could easily be read by older readers, too.
Nova Scotia:
The Birth House by Ami McKay
The Birth House is the story of Dora Rare, the first daughter to be born in five generations of the Rare family. As a child in an isolated village in Nova Scotia, she is drawn to Miss Babineau, an outspoken Acadian midwife with a gift for healing and a kitchen filled with herbs and folk remedies. During the turbulent years of World War I, Dora becomes the midwife's apprentice. Together, they help the women of Scots Bay through infertility, difficult labors, breech births, unwanted pregnancies and even unfulfilling sex lives.
When Gilbert Thomas, a brash medical doctor, comes to Scots Bay with promises of fast, painless childbirth, some of the women begin to question Miss Babineau's methods - and after Miss Babineau's death, Dora is left to carry on alone. In the face of fierce opposition, she must summon all of her strength to protect the birthing traditions and wisdom that have been passed down to her.
Filled with details that are as compelling as they are surprising-childbirth in the aftermath of the Halifax Explosion, the prescribing of vibratory treatments to cure hysteria and a mysterious elixir called Beaver Brew- The Birth House is an unforgettable tale of the struggles women have faced to maintain control over their own bodies and to keep the best parts of tradition alive in the world of modern medicine.
I loved this book. Set near where I live it was first something I wanted to read because I knew the area that was being talked about. Then I actually read it and I loved it! I have even read it more than once which is a big deal for me considering I believe all the reads were after I had all ready started blogging. Her new book, The Virgin Cure, is also a good read.
Adventure Novel:
The Outlander by Gil Adamson
"It was night, and the dogs came through the trees, unleashed and howling." Mary Boulton, 19, is newly widowed, a result of having murdered her husband. The men with the dogs are her twin brothers-in-law, gunslingers bent on avenging their dead sibling. It is 1903, and the only place for Mary to run is west, into the wilderness.
She is pursued not only by the vengeful twins but also by visions. Mary was raised in a genteel household but married a brute; now, having divested herself of her husband, she is not altogether sane. From an early benefactress she steals a horse, and together they navigate a gothic, ghostly mountain pass, unlikely to improve Mary's mental state. Desperate, freezing, and alone, Mary is now an outlander, as are most of the characters she encounters. The bird lady, the Ridgerunner, Bonny, the dwarf, and the cat-skinner are all earthbound beings inhabiting unsettled lives.
The juxtaposition of Adamson's ethereal landscape and unusual characters make this novel difficult to put down. One is never completely sure if the landscape described is wholly real or a figment borne of Mary's fragile mind. Either way, The Outlander is a poet's journey through astonishing terrain.
I can't even remember why I read this book in the first place. I think I was at the second-hand store and saw it on the shelves, so I grabbed it. I read it relatively soon afterwards and really enjoyed it. While there is a cast of secondary characters the novel is almost all about Mary. We really get to know her and Adamson does a wonderful job telling the story. It is not a happy tale, but it is worth checking out.
Tourist Attraction:
The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan
Tom Cole, the grandson of a legendary local hero, has inherited an uncanny knack for reading the Niagara River's whims and performing daring feats of rescue at the mighty falls. And like the tumultuous meeting of the cataract's waters with the rocks below, a chance encounter between Tom and 17-year-old Bess Heath has an explosive effect. When they first meet on a trolley platform, Bess immediately recognizes the chemistry between them, and the feeling is mutual.
But the hopes of young love are constrained by the 1915 conventions of Niagara Falls, Ontario. Tom's working-class pedigree doesn't suit Bess's family, despite their recent fall from grace. Sacked from his position at a hydroelectric power company, Bess's father has taken to drink, forcing her mother to take in sewing for the society women who were once her peers. Bess pitches in as she pines for Tom, but at her young age, she's unable to fully realize how drastically her world is about to change.
Set against the resounding backdrop of the falls, Cathy Marie Buchanan's carefully researched, capaciously imagined debut novel entwines the romantic trials of a young couple with the historical drama of the exploitation of the river's natural resources. The current of the river, like that of the human heart, is under threat: "Sometimes it seems like the river is being made into this measly thing," says Tom, bemoaning the shortsighted schemes of the power companies. "The river's been bound up with cables and concrete and steel, like a turkey at Christmastime."
Skillfully portraying individuals, families, a community, and an environment imperiled by progress and the devastations of the Great War, The Day the Falls Stood Still beautifully evokes the wild wonder of its setting, a wonder that always overcomes any attempt to tame it. But at the same time, Buchanan's tale never loses hold of the gripping emotions of Tom and Bess's intimate drama. The result is a transporting novel that captures both the majesty of nature and the mystery of love.
Niagara Falls is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world and this is one of the best books with it as a setting. If you have ever wanted to visit and just haven't made it, want a good read, or even if you have visited before and want to revisit this is the book for you. I am looking forward to Buchanan's new book next year. She is a wonderful writer!
Family:
Clara Callan by Richard Wright
In a small town in Canada, Clara Callan reluctantly takes leave of her sister, Nora, who is bound for New York. It's a time when the growing threat of fascism in Europe is a constant worry, and people escape from reality through radio and the movies. Meanwhile, the two sisters -- vastly different in personality, yet inextricably linked by a shared past -- try to find their places within the complex web of social expectations for young women in the 1930s.
While Nora embarks on a glamorous career as a radio-soap opera star, Clara, a strong and independent-minded woman, struggles to observe the traditional boundaries of a small and tight-knit community without relinquishing her dreams of love, freedom, and adventure. However, things aren't as simple as they appear -- Nora's letters eventually reveal life in the big city is less exotic than it seems, and the tranquil solitude of Clara's life is shattered by a series of unforeseeable events. These twists of fate require all of Clara's courage and strength, and finally put the seemingly unbreakable bond between the sisters to the test.
ah, Richard Wright... You did something right with this book. It is too bad I can't seem to connect with the rest of your books despite trying every time there is a new release... I really liked Nora and Clara. They came alive in this book and you got to know them really well. I enjoyed my time with them and seeing what life was like for them in the 30's. A good read!
A Part of Our Heritage:
Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden
Inspired in part by real-life World War I Ojibwa hero Francis Pegahmagabow, this unblinking, impeccably researched novel is the astonishing story of two Cree snipers in the killing fields of Ypres and the Somme, and the winding journey home to northern Ontario that only one of them will make. A remarkable tale of brutality, survival, and rebirth, Three Day Road is an unforgettable reading experience.
This book is obviously only set in Canada some of the time, but I had to include it. If you have ever seen the movie Windtalkers you would know of the important contribution Natives made to the war effort. This is Canada's book version. It blew me away and is one of my favourite books ever. It deserves all of the attention it received.
I also recommend Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery and Barometer Rising by Hugh MacLennan. They are more Canadian classics than historical fiction so that is why I am just adding them as an aside.
It's sometime in the early 19th century, Newfoundland in a small fishing village called Paradise Deep. The village is anything but paradise and times are tough. The fish are no longer biting and a whale has beached on shore. There is no way to save the whale and the hungry villagers are waiting for it to die before they carve it up and portion it out. They will also harvest the oil for their lamps.
The whale finally dies and the villagers are carving away when all of a sudden a man pours out of its stomach. At first he appears to be dead but then it is discovered that he is alive. The Devine Widow is a healer and midwife and takes him home to nurse him. He is washed but no matter how many times he is washed he still stinks like dead fish. The other family members insist that he is kept in the shed.
He is mute but after a short time, healthy. They decide to call him Judah. many of the villagers decided that it is Judah brought them bad luck and that is why the fish left. They go after him but the widow has him hide.
The next day a bunch of the fisherman go out to try to catch some fish. They are desperate and feel it is they duty to try even though they now they will fail. They start rowing out but can't figure out where that nasty "dead fish" smell is coming from, when all of a sudden Judah comes out from under their gear. They decide it's too far to row back to shore and give Judah a turn at the oars. The men still call him "stranger".
Judah puts a line out and the fisherman think he's crazy they way he is doing it. However, "The stranger struck in then, hauling the line hand over hand, arms straining with the weight. The first pale glove of flesh let loose a pulse of oily ink as it broke the surface." Its squid, so many squid. The men fill up their boat and then hand of the line of squid to the next boat, and the next boat, until they couldn't carry any more. They discover that Judah is good luck, after all. After that they insist that he go with them every day they fish and then the cod start biting again.
This is a multi generational historical fiction saga. It chronicles two rival families, the rich Sellers family that pretty much owns the town and the Devine family, who try to scratch a living from fishing. When Judah is discovered from the whale, Mary Tryphena Devine is only nine years old. When she become of marriage age, she turns down every possible suitor, holding out hope that her secret love, Absalom Sellers will come back home and ask for her hand despite the rivalry between families. Mary Tryphena is finally talked into marrying Judah, to save him from King-Me Sellers.
Though Mary can't stand the smell of him, they consummate the marriage, in the shed and then Tryphena goes back to the house. Nine months later she has their son, Patrick. Later they have another son, Henley but is he really Judah's?
In part two of the book, Mary Tryphina is an old woman and still married to Judah, who still lives in the shed. The book goes on to follow her, her children, and her grandchildren, as well as the Sellers family.
I am a big fan of Michael Crummey. I absolutely loved the River Thieves and really enjoyed his follow up book, The Wreckage. He was born and raised in Newfoundland and it's the setting for his books. He took a departure from his usual writing style with Galore and I wasn't sure that I would enjoy it as much as his other works. He used a lot of folklore and some magical realism.
I am not a fan of magical realism at all. However, when I found out the Michael Crummy was finally coming to Vancouver (a friend of mine and I kept bugging the Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival until they finally invited him) I had to buy Galore to get it signed. (See my meeting Michael Crummey post.)
That was back in October and now I finally got to read it. I was quite surprised by it. Even though I usually have a very strong dislike for magical realism, I actually liked this book. Though those parts were not my favorite by any stretch, Crummey is such a gifted writer that I was able to lose myself in the story. He has such strong character development and let me tell you, there were a lot of characters. His poetic prose from his other books was still there and pulled me in. I wonder what his next book will bring?
Imagine yourself as an Edwardian debutante with servants to tend to your needs and chaperones to ensure that ardent swains don’t try to steal a kiss. Or as a young gentleman with the leisure and means to race the new-fangled motorboats or be daring enough to fly a flimsy aeroplane. After all, this was the heyday of that famous tune, “Come Josephine in My Flying Machine”.
Now imagine yourself suddenly thrust into the horrific arena of war.
This is what happened to countless men and women during the Great War as they became part of the “lost generation”. What fertile soil for an author, not only in being able to illustrate the contrast between the “Age of Elegance” and the war years, but also in taking characters through the physical and emotional turmoil of one of the most cataclysmic times in modern history.
Young men went eagerly and patriotically off to what they thought would be a short-lived adventure. Millions now lie in silent cemeteries where row upon row of headstones are a moving reminder of sacrificed youth.
Women did “their bit” by stepping in to take over traditional men’s jobs, and also by working as Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurses and ambulance drivers. The nurses were hastily trained, but learned quickly on the job. While VADs spent much of their time changing linens, sterilizing equipment, and serving meals, they were just as readily asked to hold down the exposed intestines of a mortally wounded soldier, as was Canadian Doreen Gery on her first day in a British military hospital. Her protest to the Nursing Sister that she would rather die than do that, earned the retort, “Well, die then! You’re no good to me if you can’t do the work!” Like other VADs, Doreen stoically got on with the job. Giving up was considered the equivalent of cowardice in a soldier.
These newfound responsibilities and freedoms for women had a profound effect on them and on society. In her classic autobiography, Testament of Youth, VAD Vera Brittain wrote, “Short of actually going to bed with [the men], there was hardly an intimate service that I did not perform for one or another in the course of four years.” She stated that this gave her an "early release from the sex-inhibitions... [of] the Victorian tradition which up to 1914 dictated that a young woman should know nothing of men but their faces and their clothes until marriage."
Like Vera, VADs were generally from genteel and sheltered backgrounds. Some were aristocrats, like Lady Diana Manners - the "Princess Di" of her day - reputedly the most beautiful woman in England and expected to marry the Prince of Wales. Her mother was very much against Diana becoming a VAD, as Diana states in her memoir, The Rainbow Comes and Goes. "She explained in words suitable to my innocent ears that wounded soldiers, so long starved of women, inflamed with wine and battle, ravish and leave half-dead the young nurses who wish only to tend them," The Duchess gave in, but "knew, as I did, that my emancipation was at hand," Diana says, and goes on to admit, "I seemed to have done nothing practical in all my twenty years." Nursing plunged her and other young women into life-altering experiences.
I’m enthralled by the memoirs, letters, and journals written by people who lived during a time when life was intense, and death, unpredictable and unprecedented, when even those who survived the war were forever changed. So I draw heavily on these fascinating primary sources for incidents, attitudes, morality, and other details in order to bring that era to life in my novels.
Beginning in 1914 inthe renowned lake district of Muskoka - the playground of the affluent and powerful for well over a century - The Summer Before The Storm takes readers on an unforgettable journey from romantic moonlight cruises to the horrific sinking of the Lusitania, regattas on the water to combat in the skies over France, extravagant mansions to deadly trenches. Its sequel, Elusive Dawn, continues to follow the lives, loves, and fortunes of the privileged Wyndham family and their friends through the tumultuous war years.
For Book 3 in this “Muskoka Novels” series, I am now discovering the radical “Roaring 20s”… and all that jazz. For more information, visit theMuskokaNovels.com.
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Born in Germany, Gabriele emigrated to Canada as a young child.She is currently working on her fifth novel, which is Book 3 in "The Muskoka Novels" series.
Steeped in the intriguing history of Niagara Falls, this is an epic love story as rich, spellbinding and majestic as the falls themselves.
1915. The dawn of the hydroelectric power era in Niagara Falls. Seventeen-year-old
Bess Heath has led a sheltered existence as the youngest daughter of the director of the Niagara Power Company. After graduation day at her boarding school, she is impatient to return to her picturesque family home near the falls. But when she arrives, nothing is as she left it. Her father has lost his job at the power company, her mother is reduced to taking in sewing from the society ladies she once entertained, and Isabel, Bess’s vivacious older sister, is a shadow of her former self. She has shut herself in her bedroom, barely eating and harboring a secret.
The night of her return, Bess meets Tom Cole by chance on a trolley platform, she finds herself inexplicably drawn to him against her family’s strong objections. He is not from their world. Rough-hewn and fearless, he lives off what the river provides and has an uncanny ability to predict the whims of the falls. His daring river rescues render him a local hero and cast him as a threat to the power companies that seek to harness the falls for themselves. As the couple’s lives become more fully entwined, Bess is forced to make a painful choice between what she wants and what is best for
her family and her future.
Set against the tumultuous backdrop of Niagara Falls, at a time when daredevils shot the river rapids in barrels and great industrial fortunes were made and lost as quickly as lives disappeared, The Day the Falls Stood Still is an intoxicating debut novel.
From Harper Collins.ca
After finishing The Outlander by Gil Adamson, I thought I had found my favourite Canadian history read of the year. I loved it because it was about an aspect of Canadian history that does not normally include women and because it was written in such a fantastic manner. I honestly did not think anything would come close to matching it. Then, I read the debut novel by Cathy Marie Buchanan and I was blown away all over again! I wouldn't say I like this book better than The Outlander, but I would say that it is a tie. I suppose that means you can expect another glowing review!
This book was just involved in a blog tour, so I know that it is probably getting a bit overdone, but I do have to say a few things about it. One of the things that I loved about it was the fact that I have been to Niagara Falls, so I knew the places that were being talked about. That's something I do enjoy about the books I read from time to time. Sometimes it is nice to step out of your normal comfort zone, but other times it is nice to be able to really see where the book is being set. I also went through a period where I was obsessed with the history of Niagara Falls. Buchanan is pretty accurate in my humble opinion with her facts. When she changes them, though, there is a note at the back to explain that she did and why she did it.
I also loved the characters. I really felt for them. They were living during the Depression and then World War II. It was not a happy time and lots of other things happened to them on top of the global ones. It was a difficult period in their lives, but I think that Buchanan carried it out really well. You could almost think too much bad stuff happened and it was a bit unbelievable, but that isn't how I felt at all! The best thing of all is that this topic is essentially an issue that we are only now getting bent out of shape about. The abuse of the environment for our own gain. It's terrible the things that we have done to nature in order to benefit ourselves. I found learning what the power plants do to the falls fascinating!
There are so many wonderful things I could say about this book, but I hate being one of a bunch of reviews of the same book. People get bored! I couldn't not review it at all, though, because I loved it and I think lots and lots of people still need to read it. Buchanan captured everything so well, it is really a wonderfully written novel that deserves all the praise in the world. If you haven't read it yet, you should!
By the way, isn't that just about the most wonderful cover ever? See, that is what a cover should be like. Not those annoying headless women!
My thanks to Harper Collins Canada for sending me this book!
In 1903 a mysterious, desperate young woman flees alone across the west, one quick step ahead of the law. She has just become a widow by her own hand.
Gil Adamson's extraordinary novel opens in heart-pounding mid-flight and propels the reader through a gripping road trip with a twist -- the steely outlaw in this story is a grief-struck nineteen-year-old woman. As the young widow encounters characters of all stripes -- unsavoury, wheedling, greedy, lascivious, self-reliant, and occasionally generous and trustworthy -- Adamson weds her brilliant literary style to the gripping, moving, picaresque tale of one woman's deliberate journey into the wild.
When Gil Adamson published her first two books, a volume of poetry (Primitive; 1991) and a collection of stories (Help Me, Jacques Cousteau; 1995), readers immediately recognized a unique and unusually compelling voice, one that partnered the random and the surreal with a finely tuned technical brilliance. The Outlander more than fulfills the promise of that voice.
Description from Amazon.ca
My Thoughts:
I finished this book on Saturday. As I am writing this review up, it is Sunday. If only I could do this all the time I would probably have more readers and better reviews! Unfortunately, it takes me forever to get around to review writing this year. I am still writing reviews from months ago and I doubt I will review everything that I read this year. I have to review some books, though, and this is one of the priorities. I try to read a fair amount of Canadian literature. Some I love, while some is just okay. This book falls in the love category! It's crazy popular at my library right now because it was shortlisted for the Canada Reads, but it was so worth the wait! Gil Adamson is going on to my Canadian Authors That I Love List, that's for sure!
When the novel begins we have a 19-year-old girl on the run. We are not told why or what, but we understand that something horrible has happened. She is dressed in her widows black and is so frightened that she does not even plan ahead to bring any money with her. It is only as the novel progresses that we learn anything about her. Then, you have to figure out what the lies are and what the truth is as she begins to tell her tale to the people that she meets along the way. You soon know, though, that a life on the run in Canada's wilderness is not the life she was raised for. She was raised in a good home with at least a couple servants that did all the domestic work for her and she never was taught how to survive in the wilderness on her own. You learn and adapt, though, and it is amazing how much she grows during the course of the novel.
For those that need a reminder, life in Canada's west is not ideal. During 1903 it would have been largely uninhabited and barren. When she decides to run out into the wilds, she runs the risk of dying of exposure and never running into another human being. Even now, there are large sections of the country that are not suitable for large-scale civilization, so it wouldn't be impossible for this story to be taking place now instead of a little over a hundred years before. What I am leading up to saying is that this is not a happy novel. It has happy moments, but life is hard and Adamson make sure you know it. There are moments where you honestly think nothing else horrible could happen to the main character, but it is never unbelievable. Coupled with some great secondary characters, Adamson has herself a winner here.
I strongly recommend this book! It's hard to review it, though, because you are supposed to discover the story as you go along. Even telling you her name, I think, is a spoiler! So, I am going to leave it at this and hope that you will be curious enough to discover what happened for yourself.
The best way to start with this review is to tell a story. I was at work one day and there were some men visiting from out west. At work this is this very large painting of Evangeline, a figure from east-coast history. It is a gorgeous painting, I have no idea how my work acquired it, and they had no idea who she was. So, I gave them a history lesson and pointed out that people from the west coast should learn who she is in high school because I learned all about Canada in school. Well, they got rather offended and decided to try and stump me. Their question? Who was Louis Riel? They were not impressed when I answered correctly, that's for sure! This sets the stage for just how important a figure Riel was in Canadian history. When I saw the book in comic form, though, I just had to have it! It took me forever to get around to reading it, though.
Recapping the story requires a history lesson, so to be very brief. For those that do not know, Louis Riel was a Metis (half French and half Native) man from Manitoba. Back when Canada was acquiring the land that they have today, though, they were living on their own land. The Hudson Bay Company (a fur-trading company) claimed it was theirs, though, and sold it to Canada. The Metis did not believe that their free land could sold and got rather angry when the people in Ontario started to make drastic changes. While I have always known who Louis Riel was, I have to say that this is the most extensive I have ever read about him, so there were things brought up in this book that I was not aware of. It was a learning experience, but at the same time, it was told in comic strip form with a bit of humour thrown in.
So, do I recommend it? It might not be a book you just read. It is likely more of a book for those that are interested in Canadian history and important figures. Since that really interests me, I really liked this book, but it might not be for everyone. I actually wish this was a series! It is a good idea for a series, in any case.
Press baron, entrepreneur, art collector, and wartime minister in Churchill's cabinet,Max Aitken was a colonial Canadian extraordinaire. Rising from a hardscrabble childhood in New Brunswick, he became a millionaire at age 25, earned the title of Lord Beaverbrook at 38, and by age 40 was the most influential newspaperman in the world. Fiercely loyal to the British Empire, he was nonetheless patronized by London's upper class, whose country he worked tirelessly to protect during World War II. David Adams Richards, one of Canada's preeminent novelists, celebrates Beaverbrook's heroic achievements in this perceptive interpretive biography.
I am so happy that I came across this series of books being put out by Penguin Canada. I saw that Charlotte Grey was writing a book about Nellie McClung and bought it because I like both the author and the subject matter. When the book arrived, I saw a website and went to see where it led to and found a treasure-trove of a series! I love history, especially Canadian history, so I was thrilled to see that famous Canadian authors were writing books on famous Canadians! And, famous Canadian artists were creating the cover art for the books. Some of the subjects I know a lot about, while others I have only heard about in passing. Lord Beaverbrook is one subject that I have never really paid a lot of attention to.
I am very glad that I took the time to read this book. I chose to read this one next because I really enjoy David Adams Richards as an author (most of the time), so I wanted to see what he would do with Beaverbrook. Both men are from New Brunswick, so it made sense that he was the author writing about him. This series is not meant to tell you every little detail about the subjects life, it is more to bring history to Canadians and then you can decide if you want to explore the subject in more depth. While I enjoyed learning more about Beaverbrook, I do not think he made a lasting impact on me. Politics can be my thing, but I pay more attention to modern politics than the history of them.
Beaverbrook was reviled in his adopted country of England, looked upon as a colonial, and hated by the aristocracy as an upstart. He was snubbed by those he must wanted to impress, and betrayed by those he trusted and helped. The heroic and historic role he played on the world stage from 1910 to 1945 is almost forgotten in Canada (like so much else about our history).
He does sound like quite the character, and he was, but this will probably be the only book I read on the subject. I am glad I know about more about him because I do not recall ever learning about him in school, and that really is a shame because he was a colorful character that did a lot for this country.
Much of his story takes place during the Second World War and I was very interested to learn about what part he played in it. I have always paid attention to history pertaining to both of the World Wars and I was surprised that I did not recall ever really hearing mention of Beaverbrook. He was a great friend of Winston Churchill, a name that is known far and wide, and it is a shame that Beaverbrook is not better known because without him, much that happened when Churchill had the reins would never be.
Anyone that wants to know a bit more about Canadian history should check this series out. The books are not dry and they give you a very good overview of the lives of these famous Canadians.
After reviewing the book about Nellie McClung, I got a bit distracted with the website for the Extraordinary Canadians series. So, now I am going to share just how fabulous this series is. This is not just for Canadians, though, I promise.
David Adams Richards wrote a book on Lord Beaverbrook. It is out right now.
Millionaire lumber man, financier, press baron, Max Aitken always attracted both approval and criticism in equal measure. He was an irrepressible entrepreneur, rising from modest beginnings in New Brunswick to become the world's most powerful newspaperman and a British Lord by the age of forty. He counselled kings and statesmen, bedded scores of women, supported Canadian art, and became Winston Churchill's invaluable wartime minister. Yet despite his loyalty and service to the British empire, Beaverbrook was mostly derided by English society as an overly ambitious colonial. Novelist David Adams Richards, the bard of Miramichi, brings unique insight into the life of his fellow New Brunswicker, Max Aitken, reminding us of why he mattered then, and why he matters now.
The cover is by Robert Carter.
Lewis DeSoto wrote a book on Emily Carr. It is also out right now.
Emily Carr defies easy description. Painter, writer, world traveller, adventurer—she was also an original, a rebel, a free spirit, and a visionary mystic. She is one of those unique individuals, those few, who have created and articulated the symbols and images by which Canada knows itself. Lewis DeSoto, himself an award-winning novelist and painter, follows Carr's trajectory from novice art student to a mature and utterly distinctive artist. He argues that her powerful paintings encompass the many aspects of her life: the passionate engagement with the West Coast landscape, her determination to forge a modern Canadian artistic sensibility, her fascination with Indian motifs, and her spirituality. With bold strokes and nuanced shadings, DeSoto's portrait captures the genius of Carr, reminding us of why she mattered then, and why she matters now.
The cover is by Jody Hewgill.
Rudy Wiebe did a book on Big Bear. It will be out in September.
Since the publication of Rudy Wiebe's 1973 Governor General's Award–winning novel, The Temptations of Big Bear, there has been much new scholarship about the Plains Cree chief who tried to ensure the survival of his people. In Big Bear, Wiebe revisits the life of the First Nations statesman who believed in negotiation and the rule of law over violence.
The cover is by George Littlechild.
M.J. Vassanji wrote on Mordecai Richler. This book will also be out in September.
Mordecai Richler was a Quebec author. He wrote books such as The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz.
The artist is Vladymyr Yakobchuk.
Andrew Cohen wrote on Lester B. Pearson. Another book that will be out in September.
Andrew Cohen's previous books have focused on who we are at home and who we are in the wider world. As the author of While Canada Slept, an account of how Canada has slipped in its role as a strong diplomatic force in the world, Cohen is the perfect writer to assess the legacy of Lester Bowles Pearson. Pearson, who served as Prime Minister from 1963 to 1968, was a former diplomat whose peace-brokering during the 1957 Suez Crisis brought Canada to the world stage in international affairs and earned him the Nobel Peace Prize.
The artist for this cover is Joseph Salina.
The rest of the series does not have release dates, but the authors and subjects are as follows:
Feminist, politician, and social activist, Nellie McClung altered Canada's political landscape, leaving a legacy that has long survived her. She had a wicked wit, and her convictions and campaigns helped shape the Canada we live in today. Acclaimed writer Charlotte Gray, who has forged a distinguished career exploring the lives of such notable women as Susanna Moodie and Pauline Johnson, is the perfect writer to reinterpret McClung.
Penguin Canada has this series out right now that I am so excited about. It is called 'Extraordinary Canadians' and it is biographies of famous Canadians from the past. I love Canadian history, and the authors of these biographies are some of Canada's current best-selling authors. I see there are two more out, so you know I will be buying them. I imagine I will be collecting the whole series, so I just wanted to take a moment to thank whoever came up with this! It really is an awesome idea.
I bought this book because it was by Charlotte Gray, who is one of my favourite non-fiction authors. She wrote the fabulous book I read last year about Alexander Graham Bell. I also have always been intrigued by Nellie McClung because she was one of the women that was important in the feminist movement in Canada. She was my kind of person, so to see a book out about her written by an author I really enjoy, you know that I had to pick it up.
Nellie McClung says things like this:
In Canada we are developing a pattern of life, and I know something about one block of that pattern. I know it for I helped to make it, and I can say that now without any pretense of modesty, or danger of arrogance, for I know that we who make the patterns are not important, but the pattern is...
Nellie McClung was a fighter. She was one of the women involved in the Person's Case, for example. This was where women were not considered people, and thus were not able to vote. Her and four other women banded together to petition government to have this changed. McClung's role in this is the thing she is most commonly remembered for. These five women became the Famous Five, and it is because of women like them that Canadian women have the lifestyles that they have nowadays. I learned a lot from this book. I will admit that I know a lot about the Famous Five, but as a group. I had never taken the time to read individual accounts of these women, and I am glad that I finally stepped out of my comfort zone. Nellie did a lot of things that were really interesting to read about. She was a very vibrant woman that makes me proud to be born in the country that she fought so hard for. A very modern woman in many ways, she makes for a fun read.
I am really glad that I read this book. Nellie McClung deserves way more recognition than she receives. She is an essential part of Canadian history and we are still enjoying aspects of what she fought so hard for today. I recommend this book!
Impeccably researched, and written with Charlotte Gray’s unerring eye for personal and historical detail, Reluctant Genius tells the story of a man very different from his public image. Most of us think of Alexander Graham Bell as a white-bearded sage, but the young A lec Bell was a passionate and wild-eyed genius, a man given to fits of brilliance and melancholy. His technologies for photophones, tetrahedrals, flying machines and hydrodomes laid the groundwork for future achievement. And he adored his wife, Mabel, a beautiful, deaf young woman from a blueblood Boston family.
Gray goes where no other writer has gone, delving deeply into Bell’s personality and into his intense relationship with Mabel, whose background and temperament were a startling contrast to his own. Reluctant Genius takes us on an intimate journey into the golden age of invention and the vibrant life of a man whose work shaped our world.
This is my first time reading Charlotte Gray, one of Canada's predominant biography authors. Alexander Graham Bell has always been an author that has interested me. I remember learning about him as long ago as elementary school, and he has always been one of those people that I wanted to read more about. Charlotte Gray has also been one of those authors that I have heard good things but never had a chance to read before. Now that I have read this book by her, I look forward to reading more from her in the future.
Alexander Graham Bell was always an interesting inventor. He invented the telephone, which I believe we all know. Once he invented the phone, though, he got bored and wanted to work on something else, so he did not finalize any of his plans. He had a conversation with his partner, fiddled with it a few more times, and then he was done. The phone, though, would be the invention that followed him through his entire career. He would start some inventions that would influence others, but nothing was as successful for him during his lifetime as the phone.
The fact that Bell managed to invent anything was impressive. He was supposed to go to university, but it never managed to become a reality. He also had really no understanding of electricity. How he managed to accomplish anything is an impressive achievement considering his background. He was also very dedicated to the deaf community. He believed that deaf children should be raised in the hearing world so that they were not cut out of regular society. His wife did not know sign language, she spoke and read lips, so that many people were not always aware of the fact that she could not hear.
This book was marketed as a biography of Alexander Graham Bell, but it was also a book about his charming wife, Mabel. Readers get a chance to see their relationship, and also to learn about both of their lives. Mabel was an extraordinary woman for her times, she was a loving mother, but also the head of the household in many ways. It is quite apparent that her husband could be about unbalanced, but she never let it get her down. She was quite capable of keeping her husband balanced. It is hard to say what would have happened to ell without her there to keep him straight.
Charlotte Gray wrote a very good biography of a very interesting man. It was very readable. Sometimes biographies can be a bit dull, but this one was not. I strongly recommend this book if you have any interest in this subject matter.
The Second Battle of Ypres and the Forging of Canada, April 1915
Nathan M. Greenfield's talent for combining rich (and often overlooked) historical data with first-person accounts made his book The Battle of the St. Lawrence both a critical and popular success. Now he turns his formidable storytelling skill to one of the defining battles of the First World War and a seminal event in the building of our country.
The Second Battle of Ypres pitted the highly trained German soldiers - armed with the first weapon of mass destruction, chlorine gas - against the 1st Canadian Division, which had been in the trenches for just over a week. Yet it was the Canadians who ultimately triumphed, stopping the German advance that followed history's first poison-gas attacks.
In Baptism of Fire, Greenfield revisits the battlefields and war rooms of history, deconstructing military motives and unearthing scores of unpublished interviews, giving voice to the men who faced what one officer called a "filthy, loathsome pestilence" that turned copper buttons green and seared the Canadians' lungs. He describes how surprise turned to terror as the infantry saw the first clouds of chlorine gas rolling towards them; how, at first, the German soldiers had joked that their mysterious silver cylinders, spied across the enemy line, were a new kind of German beer keg. Recreating how the Canadians immediately filled the 12-kilometre-long hole in the Allied lines after the initial gas attack, Greenfield takes readers into the unimaginable horror of shell fire that turned men into "pink mist" and obliterated trenches, leaving the survivors to defend a position of death. And he explains how the untried Canadians, with their defective Ross rifles, breathing through urine-soaked handkerchiefs, successfully made one of the most important stands of the war - perhaps even staving off an ultimate German victory.
With alacrity and a great respect for the men in the trenches, Greenfield adds a new dimension to, and explodes a few myths behind, the Battle of Ypres. Within his pages are the words of the Canadian - and German - soldiers themselves, many of whom have never been heard before. Their accounts make this a gripping read for anyone seeking to understand our historical or military past.
This book will be out on October 5, 2007. I had an advanced reading copy to enjoy! Well, not really enjoy, it is about a book about death and destruction, but you know what I mean!
Baptism of Fire is about the Battle of Ypres, or as many Canadians know it, the Battle at Flanders Fields. This is the second time a battle was fought there during the First World War, and it was really the first time that Canadians had been involved in a major battle. Canada became separate from Britain in 1867, but when Britain declared war, Canada was still under responsibility to follow the Mother Country. It may not have been their war, but they were part of Britain for so many years, it was a necessary thing. The Second World War they were allowed to make their own decisions, so they only entered because they decided to help the war effort.
I learned a lot reading this book. I am sad to say that I know more about World War Two than World War One, simply because it was WWII that my grandfather and other family members played a part in. What I knew before opening this book was a poem written by a doctor, John McCrae. It is one of the most famous poems in Canadian history, and it is spoken aloud at Remembrance Day ceremonies across the country. I have heard it so many times, I know it by heart.
In Flanders Fields Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918) Canadian Army
IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow Between the crosses row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.
I copied it here, and it really is 'blow' not 'grow'. When the poem was recorded on the Canadian Ten-Dollar bill, many people thought it was an error. It is not. So, that is what I knew about the Second Battle of Ypres. The Battle for Vimy Ridge is talked about more, but Vimy owes many things to this battle. When people began recording this battle after it was completed, Canadians had identities. Instead of being listed as part of the British Troops in some manner, Canadians received a lot of attention and names were named. Greenfield continues this tradition, when I finished this book there were names that I had seen enough time to remember. Many people said that this makes it look like it was on the Canadians were there, which is not true, but since its founding Canada had switched back and forth between the English and the French. This was Canada's first major battle as its own country, and it deserves way more attention than it receives.
I learned a lot reading this book. This was the first battle where poisonious gases were released on the Allies. This is a battle where communication was almost non-existant, and many mistakes were made because no one knew what was going on. Soldiers fought for several days without any food, water, or sleep, so it was a very trying affair. The Allies held their own, though, despite extreme abuse to their bodies, they fought on. Could this battle have been handled differently? Probably, but they did the best they could considering this was 1915. One of the things that really bothered me about this battle was the guns. It was made clear several times that the guns the Canadians had to work with were horrible because they kept seizing on them. Just functioning guns would probably have made a big difference.
Baptism of Fire was a very interesting book. I learned a lot from it about just one battle because the battle revealed so much more about what it was like to be a Canadian soldier during the First World War. They are the dead, and we owe it to them to never forget the sacrifices they made to insure freedom for Canada. They were not alone, there were other people there, but this book is about Canada's contribution.
Be sure and pick up your own copy when it is released in October!
Completion Date: July 31, 2007 Pages: 416 Publication Year: 2007 Received from Random House in 2007
Reason for Reading: The book takes place in Nova Scotia, in the area that is New Brunswick today and becomes New Brunswick during the course of the book. I live in the Maritimes, so I like books that take place in this period.
The epic true story of Charlotte Taylor, as told by her great-great-great-granddaughter, one of Canada’s foremost journalists.
In 1775, twenty-year-old Charlotte Taylor fled her English country house with her lover, the family’s black butler. To escape the fury of her father, they boarded a ship for the West Indies, but ten days after reaching shore, Charlotte’s lover died of yellow fever, leaving her alone and pregnant in Jamaica.
Undaunted, Charlotte swiftly made an alliance with a British naval commodore, who plied a trading route between the islands and British North America, and travelled north with him. She landed at the Baie de Chaleur, in what is present-day New Brunswick, where she found refuge with the Mi’kmaq and birthed her baby. In the sixty-six years that followed, she would have three husbands, nine more children and a lifelong relationship with an aboriginal man.
Charlotte Taylor lived in the front row of history, walking the same paths as the expelled Acadians, the privateers of the British-American War and the newly arriving Loyalists. In a rough and beautiful landscape, she struggled to clear and claim land, and battled the devastating epidemics that stalked her growing family. Using a seamless blend of fact and fiction, Charlotte Taylor’s great-great-great-granddaughter, Sally Armstrong, reclaims the life of a dauntless and unusual woman and delivers living history with all the drama and sweep of a novel.
When I saw this book at the store I originally thought it was non-fiction, but it turns out that she originally planned it to be non-fiction and could not find enough information, so it has correct details but she filled in the unknown facts with her own ideas. She has a rough idea of Charlotte's life, but she doesn't necessarily know the exact truth, so she researched the most logical choice.
I was really intrigued by this book because Charlotte Taylor is not the sort we learn about in school, and I think that is a real shame. She was the first female settler on the Mirimichi. The Mirimichi is a river, for those that do not know. How she ended up in the New World is not known, so that is one of the factors that Armstrong guessed how it happened by the details that she did have. The first child that Charlotte has is with the lover that meant her leaving her family home. When she gets to the New World she will have 3 husbands and several children. Upon her death she had over 70 grandchildren which is a rather staggering number, but make sense for the times.
She was a fantastic woman to read about. She forged a life for herself in the New World and did not bow down to the men that thought she was speaking outside her rights as a female. She owned her own land, defended her family, kept the family fed in the winter months, and had a spirit that was known throughout the land. She was simply a fascinating woman to read about and to hear about all the things that she did as a woman growing up in a very hostile and unsettled world, especially after living the first twenty years of her life in a very good home where she did not have to lift a finger.
I loved reading about this woman, and even if the geography does not interest you this woman's indomitable spirit is an inspiration for everyone. I strongly recommend this book about one of the most interesting Canadian women I have ever read about.
Continuing our new and regular feature here at Historical Fiction. 
23rd May 1873 - Today celebrates the day when Canada introduced the North West Mounted Police Force.
