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Travels With Farley
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$24.95After living in a remote Newfoundland outport and returning to Port Hope, Ontario, Claire and Farley Mowat abandoned the comforts of the mainland to live in the Magdalen Islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. They moved into a small isolated community and eventually bought a home there.
Claire Mowat writes of the ups and downs of being outsiders on their island but also of their love affair with the Magdalens, with its windswept dunes, endless beaches and raw beauty. It was a rugged life by the sea for the Mowats and sometimes a life of isolation, but they attracted visitors from far and wide, including Pierre and Margaret Trudeau, who arrived by helicopter from Charlottetown. The Mowats eventually gave the Trudeaus one of the puppies they raised. The Trudeaus, fittingly, named the dog Farley. He lived at 24 Sussex with the prime minister’s family, enjoying the comforts of civilization his namesake often eschewed.
Travels With Farley picks up where Claire’s best-selling The Outport People left off. It gives insight into her own writing life as well as Farley’s during the time when he was crafting A Whale for the Killing and researching Sea of Slaughter.
This is a warm and haunting tale of two writers whose lives were woven together by love, adversity and adventure. The book will appeal to both those already familiar with Farley Mowat, one of Canada’s iconic literary figures, and to those who have yet to meet this legendary and often controversial environmentalist.
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I Owe It All to Rock & Roll(and the CBC)
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95In this hilarious and insightful memoir, Frank Cameron takes readers from his childhood to his professional days at CHNS and then the CBC and on to his present life, hosting a show at Seaside FM. Frank just can’t get radio out of his blood. In between is a satisfying chronicle of a media personality who never takes himself too seriously. Frank is funny, but he also doesn’t shy away from stating his opinions and telling it like it is.
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Paddy Boy
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$17.95Paddy Boy is Patrick O’Flaherty’s lively memoir of childhood in a small secluded Newfoundland community, covering the years 1939-54. This time is most unique because it is a bridge between the old Newfoundland with its curious links to England, Ireland, and Scotland, and its new status, after 1949, as a province of Canada. O’Flaherty reimagines just what that lost world was like, how children figured into it, how his family and other families functioned and what part religion played.
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Coastal Lives
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95She was 37, a single, sad freelance fisheries reporter and writer living in Vancouver, on Canada’s West Coast. He was 59, a widowed, heartbroken journalist and author, living in a small village on Isle Madame, Cape Breton, on Canada’s East Coast. The life paths of Marjorie Simmins and Silver Donald Cameron took many years to cross – but when they did, their worlds changed forever. Award-winning writer and journalist, Marjorie Simmins tells a story of love and resistance with humour and candour.
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Pulling No Punches The Sam Langford Story
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95Heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey called Sam Langford from Weymouth Falls, Nova Scotia, “The greatest fighter we’ve ever had.” And champion Jack Johnson stated he “he was the toughest little son-of-a-bitch that ever lived.” Celebrated New York boxing writer Hype Igoe said he was “the greatest fighter, pound for pound, who ever lived,” while New York sports writer Joe Williams said he “was probably the best the ring ever saw.” Langford was so good that many boxers refused to fight him, so good that he took bouts with bigger men just to get a match, so good that he once fought the greatest boxer of his age, Jack Johnson, who was forty pounds heavier and a good foot taller—and still went the distance.
Yet, for all the ferocity of his talent, Sam Langford (1883-1956) could not outbox fistic fate. From his first bout in 1902 until his last a quarter century later, he battled boxing’s colour barrier that kept him from being world champion in three different weight classes. Still, he refused to be knocked down and relentlessly pursued a title shot until he was nearly forty. When, in 1923, he approached Jack Kearns, the manager of then heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey, for a title bout, the wily Kearns looked over the nearly blind, well-past-his-prime boxer, and shook his head. “We were looking for someone easier,” he sighed. He was just that good. When Langford could no longer get his title shot, he retired from the ring in 1926 and soon faded from the public mind—until the serious compilers of lists that recognize boxing’s all-time greatest began including his name, and he found himself becoming a legend.
His official record says he fought 250 bouts, but he remembered fighting more than 500. And he loved to talk about them all, loved the stories that shaped the contours of his life and loved the absolute truth and less-than-certain tales that wove themselves into his boxing legend. Of course, this was as it should have been, because for him, great boxing was as much about the battles’ tales as it was about the battles themselves. This is the story of Sam Langford.
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Walking the Earth’s Spine A 2700 Kilometer Solo Hike Through the Himalayas
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$22.95This is the adventure story of the first man to walk alone along the length of the highest mountains on earth; it is also an account of one person’s interaction with the Himalayas’ three great religions. It is a meditation on the joy of walking and as its heart, it is a literary confirmation of humankind’s ability to come to terms with the loss of a loved one.
The tragic death of Jono Lineen’s younger brother becomes the catalyst for him to move to the Himalayas and spend eight years among the world’s highest mountains. The experience culminates in a four-month, 2,700-kilometer, solo trekking odyssey from Pakistan to Nepal. No one had ever attempted to walk the length of the Western Himalayas alone, but Lineen’s intentions were more psychological than physical. The trek was about immersing himself in the Himalayan culture he had grown to love, assimilating the wisdom of the place and using it to come to terms with his brother’s death.
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High Spots The Seagoing Memoirs of Captain James Wilbur Johnston
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95James Wilbur Johnston was born in 1854 in Great Village, Nova Scotia. Family oral history related that in the latter part of the 18th- or early 19th-century his grandfather was kidnapped (or “pressed” by the English Navy) from the streets of an Irish port city and forced to work as a crew member on board a sailing vessel bound for North America. Arriving at the port of Halifax, he was able to jump ship and escape to Colchester County.Wilbur was born into the world of sailing men and sailing ships that he had inherited from his grandfather. He had many adventures at sea and a thousand stories to tell. This memoir of his early days at sea was written as an intimate and revealing story for his children and his grandchildren, written in the 1930s to record the “high spots” of his time as a sailor and a captain.As Bruce Graham notes in his introduction, “What a story it is! The captain of cool temperament reveals tales of spell-binding voyages and dangerous adventure in understated tones. There is no bragging here, no ego on the pages, no huffing and puffing and it is exactly this playing down of danger, this off-handedness of high adventure and life-threatening misadventure, that give his words such a fascinating legacy. Captain Johnston is no teller of tall tales. He reveals his experiences as if his was an ordinary life. He witnessed murders, experienced ship wrecks, survived wicked winds, explored tropical islands and far-off lands. But it is more – much more than that. This is not your typical seagoing story. Turning the pages, you actually get a sense of this man, as if he is in the room with you. Seldom is a reader granted such an experience.A man like Captain Johnston was accustomed to the stinging whip of a North Atlantic gale as well as the windless lulls of southern climates, where a ship could lay idle for days or weeks waiting for trade winds. These men knew lonely days with restless. A good captain was all things to his crew; disciplinarian, doctor, barber, pastor and yes, when necessary, even pacifier. He cut their hair, blessed the dead and demanded life-threatening risks of the living. It was a dangerous life and the crew either adored and loved their captain or detested every breath he took. The captain had shipmates but no friends at sea.”At the close of Wilbur’s seagoing adventures in the manuscript, in 1886, he went home to Great Village married his village sweetheart and they moved to the U.S. But his adventures did not end there.High Spots appears in print for the public to read for the first time.
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Righting the Wrongs Gus Wedderburn’s Quest for Social Justice in Nova Scotia
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$17.95Mary Riley was born and brought up in Nova Scotia. After graduating from Mount Saint Vincent and Carleton universities she worked as a journalist for the Calgary Herald and for the Canadian Press in Ottawa. In 1970 she went to West Africa with CUSO where she taught at the University of Lagos, Nigeria, and the University of Ghana. Following graduate work at Simon Fraser University, she taught in the public relations program at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax until her retirement in 2008.
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Hermit of Africville
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95Jon Tattrie is a journalist and writer. After a decade in Europe, he took a job on the Halifax Daily News in 2006. When the paper closed in 2008, he became a full-time freelancer, writing for Metro Canada, Transcontinental Media, the Chronicle-Herald, Halifax and Progress magazines, and other publications. He’s sweated in a Mi’kmaq lodge, sailed a tall ship, explored a nuclear bunker and spent Christmas at the Halifax Stanfield International Airport. Black Snow, his first novel, is a love story set during the Halifax Explosion. He lives with his fiancée in Halifax.
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Island Year
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95As they neared retirement, Greg Brown and his wife Anne gave up their life in the U.S. to settle on a windswept Nova Scotia island inhabited by wild sheep and deer, where harbour seals sing in the fog and an old lighthouse still keeps watch over the North Atlantic. Island Year: Finding Nova Scotia tells the story of the surprises, challenges and discoveries of their first year alone on an island as they restored an old fisherman’s house, explored the island, and began to learn how to live a Nova Scotia way of life.
This is a story for anyone who dreams of exchanging a fast-paced, high-tech life for something slower and just maybe more meaningful. This is a story about the night sky and the dawn chorus, lobsters and wild raspberries, a famous pirate, the kindness of others, and getting in touch with yourself again. Funny and inspiring, this book redefines what a rich life can mean. -
If I Knew Then What I Know Now
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95Carol Ann Cole is an author, a professional speaker and the founder of the Comfort Heart Initiative. She is a member of the Order of Canada and has received numerous additional awards including the Golden Jubilee Medal, the elite Maclean’s Honour Role and the Terry Fox Citation of Honour to name a few.
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Skipper
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$15.95Frances Jewel Dickson is a native of Quebec. She has held management positions in human resources administration, written personnel policy for the Speaker of the House of Commons in Ottawa and led audit teams in evaluating the performance of government departments across Canada. Her first book, The DEW Line Years, was published in 2007 by Pottersfield Press. Frances has lived on Nova Scotia’s South Shore since 1987.
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When You Look For Me
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$17.95Here is the true story of a parent’s worst nightmare come true. Kevin Bonang’s family learns that their oldest daughter, Tiffany Tanner, has suddenly gone missing while kayaking on an inner city canal in the northern industrial city of Hamm, Germany. Kevin and his wife Lisa immediately make the journey from Nova Scotia to Germany to help in the search. Once at the site, the true reality of their daughter’s fate becomes obvious. No matter how optimistic local search officials try to be, Kevin and his wife assume the worst.
When You Look For Me takes the reader through seventeen days of the massive search including encounters with the police, search dogs, an unkind media but much kinder everyday Germans who share their compassion for Tiffany’s parents. After many grim conversations with search officials, the Bonangs begin to realize that they are not able to bring their daughter back home to Nova Scotia alive even though there had been some small glimmer of hope.
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Giants of Nova Scotia
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$16.95This double biography depicts the lives of the famed Nova Scotia giantess Anna Swan (1846-88) and the celebrated Cape Breton giant Angus McAskill (1825-63). These two splendid and singular celebrities toured the world entertaining royalty and impressing audiences from town halls to palaces. Angus and Anna’s Scottish influences were deeply embedded from childhood and although it was unlikely the two ever met, the similarities in their lives were uncanny. During their adventures, both giants worked with and met many unusual characters. Both met Queen Victoria. Anna married an American giant and the two toured as “The Tallest Married Couple in the World.” The book explores the causes of gigantism and how this rare condition shaped the lives and personalities of these two Nova Scotians. Anna and Angus were born to normal-sized, hard-working parents and grew up in rural surroundings but rose to great stardom on the world stage. Both were regarded for their kind hearts and compassion for others. They have left a meaningful message for readers that resonates more than a century after their deaths. Both are honoured at museums in Nova Scotia that house their artifacts. Thousands of people flock to these sites to learn about these great giants.
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Anchorman
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95Stewart Donovan is professor of English at St. Thomas University. His recent book The Forgotten World of R.J. MacSween: a life, was shortlisted for two Atlantic Book Awards.
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Life and Times of Joe Casey
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95Joe Casey’s quick wit and indomitable spirit have enabled him to take risks in every job he ever undertook. Born in Annapolis County in1918 and still going strong, he will make you laugh your way through the many dramatic events if his active life. As a boy, he delivered his mother’s loaves of bread up and down the Victoria Beach Road and later in life he would break bread with the rich and famous. As a third-generation harbour pilot, he faced many dangers piloting munitions-laden ships through Digby Gap during the war and piloting ships of all kinds in the most severe weather.
Joe’s life story, filled with anecdotes and humour, mirrors the history of Nova Scotia in the twentieth century. It shows how that history shaped the man and how the man shaped history –as harbour pilot, fisherman, fish plant owner, lieutenant in the Royal Canadian Navy, hotel owner as well as member and Deputy Speaker of Nova Scotia Legislature.
Joe has pitted his storytelling skills against some of the best, including American actor James Cagney. On another occasion, a sailing trip down the East Coast, Joe’s spirit of competition led him to trade tales with Robert Ripley of Believe it or not fame. In this volume, his rich stories bring the past alive.
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Memories on the Bounty A Story of Friendship, Love, and Adventure
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95In 1960, Roy Boutilier and twenty-four fellow Nova Scotians set sail for Tahiti aboard the newly built replica sailing ship Bounty. The ship stayed in Tahiti for almost a year while MGM Studios filmed the epic historical drama Mutiny on the Bounty, starring Marlon Brando.
Roy’s year on Bounty and his experiences in Tahiti are themselves the stuff of movies. But it took a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease for Roy and his long-time friend, Janet Sanford, to realize that a fascinating story would be lost if someone didn’t capture those memories.
And so began a series of Monday-morning meetings as Roy and the author embarked on a race against time. Memories on the Bounty goes far beyond re-telling Roy’s story; it explores the boundaries of memory, the challenges of storytelling, the pain of saying goodbye, and the enduring bonds of friendship.
With dozens of never-before-seen photos from Bounty’s maiden voyage and her time in Tahiti, Memories on the Bounty is a touching story of adventure, love, and loss.
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Cultivating Success The Life of Acadian Seaplants Founder Louis Deveau
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$27.95Louis Deveau was born in the Acadian village of Salmon River, Digby County, NS, in the early years of the Great Depression. He inherited his father’s work ethic and his mother’s entrepreneurial flair, soon pioneering the creation of the commercial crab industry?now the second-largest fishery in Atlantic Canada. That work put him on the front lines of the industry he would transform over a lifetime: the seaweed business.
At forty-nine, Louis incorporated Acadian Seaplants Limited (ASL), and doggedly grew the company by capitalizing on research and development innovations. Today, ASL employs hundreds of people in more than a dozen nations, keeps a research staff of about fifty, and exports a wide range of products to over eighty nations worldwide.
With dozens of black and white photos and two colour inserts, this comprehensive biography tells the story of a visionary whose determination to build a successful business in Nova Scotia, and whose commitment to church, family, community, and Acadian culture transformed ASL into a world-leading, research- and technology-driven juggernaut.
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« Merci de nous avoir choisis » K.C. Irving, Arthur Irving et l’histoire d’Irving Oil
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$29.95Est-ce qu’on naît entrepreneur ou est-ce qu’on apprend à le devenir? « Merci de nous avoir choisis » cherche à répondre à cette fameuse question en examinant l’histoire fascinante des magnats des affaires Arthur Irving et K.C. Irving, et celle d’Irving Oil.
Un observateur aguerri a écrit au sujet des Irving : « Qu’on les aime ou qu’on les haïsse, on se doit de les respecter. » S’appuyant sur d’innombrables entrevues et des recherches approfondies, l’auteur primé Donald J. Savoie (Se débrouiller par ses propres moyens) examine en détail le succès d’une entreprise qui a vu le jour à Bouctouche et qui a grandi à Saint John, au Nouveau-Brunswick, et qui exploite maintenant la plus grande raffinerie de pétrole au Canada, ainsi que plus d’un millier de stations-service réparties dans l’Est du Canada, la Nouvelle-Angleterre et l’Irlande. L’entreprise a également des bureaux à Amsterdam et à Londres et exploite la seule raffinerie en Irlande.
Comme l’a dit K.C. Irving, on n’est jamais assuré de garder les clients; il faut gagner leur fidélité une personne à la fois. « Merci de nous avoir choisis » retrace l’histoire de la famille Irving depuis ses origines en Écosse, couvre la création et les premières années de l’entreprise et étudie la façon dont Irving Oil fait face aux défis actuels. Cette biographie exhaustive fournit des enseignements précieux pour les aspirants entrepreneurs, les écoles de commerce, les politiques publiques et, en particulier, le Canada atlantique.
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Anne’s Cradle The Life and Works of Hanako Muraoka, Japanese Translator of Anne of Green Gables
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$24.95The bestselling biography of renowned Japanese translator of Anne of Green Gables is available in English for the first time.
The name Hanako Muraoka is revered in Japan. Her Japanese translation of L. M. Montgomery’s beloved children’s classic Anne of Green Gables, Akage no An (Redhaired Anne) was the catalyst for the book’s massive and enduring popularity in Japan. A book that has since spawned countless interpretations, from manga to a long-running television series, and has remained on Japanese curriculum for half a century. For the first time, the bestselling biography of Hanako Muraoka written by her granddaughter, Eri Muraoka, and translated by the award-winning Cathy Hirano (The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up), is available in English. -
“Thanks for the Business” K.C. Irving, Arthur Irving, and the Story of Irving Oil
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$29.95As K. C. Irving said, business is never given—it has to be earned, one customer at a time. “Thanks for the Business” traces the Irving family back to its roots in Scotland, covers the establishment and early years of the company, and looks at how Irving Oil is confronting current challenges. This comprehensive biography holds important lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs, for business schools, for public policy, and particularly for Atlantic Canada.
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Somebeachsomewhere A Harness Racing Legend from a One-Horse Stable
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$26.95It’s November 2006 and Brent MacGrath, a car salesman from Nova Scotia, has just had his first glimpse of a gorgeous yearling at the Lexington Yearling Sale—and his heart skips a beat. He takes another look. Even this young, the bay stallion has size and “presence.” Against all odds, and with limited funds, MacGrath makes a successful bid for the colt.
Somebeachsomewhere: The Harness Racing Legend from a One-Horse Stable is a work of narrative non-fiction that follows the life and career of the Ohio-born, Canadian-sired superstar pacer known as “Beach” who belonged to a syndicate of six owners from Canada’s East Coast. From a relatively humble lineage, Somebeachsomewhere turned out to be a horse of a lifetime: a world-champion Hall of Famer, smashing records and setting a single-season earning record as a three-year-old. Many consider Beach, who died unexpectedly in 2018, the greatest pacer and Standardbred sire of all time. Canadian and American racing fans loved the friendly stallion with “an extra gear,” and threw “Beach Parties” whenever he raced.
This is the first-ever complete, generously illustrated account of “the Beach,” a horse who captivated the world with his speed, courage and near-flawless gait. It is also a story of improbabilities and magic, featuring dozens of interviews with top American and Canadian horsemen and women, the owners of Empire Stallions in Avenel, Australia, and harness racing industry professionals.
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One Good Reason A Memoir of Addiction and Recovery, Music and Love
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$29.95In this deeply personal memoir, co-written with wife Andrea Aragon, singer-songwriter and renowned mental health, addiction, and recovery advocate Séan McCann leaves no stone unturned. McCann and Aragon offer readers a love story, a memoir of addiction and recovery, of young love and a strained marriage, of reaching international fame and rock bottom. But most of all, an honest, raw, and inspiring tribute to embracing that we are all worth saving.
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Amelia and Me Book 1 of the Ginny Ross Series
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$14.95After reading about Amelia Earhart in her friend’s scrapbook, twelve-year-old Ginny Ross decides to become a pilot. But how will Ginny’s dream take flight when her mother—not to mention society in general—so fiercely believes a woman’s place is in the home?
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Senior Moment Navigating the Challenges of Caring for Mom
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$22.95Monica Graham got her first inkling that her eighty-nine-year-old mother might not be able to continue living on her own when she coated chicken breasts with dishwashing liquid for dinner. It was an easy mistake—the yellow detergent lived right beside the olive oil on the kitchen counter. Graham could easily have done the same thing herself, she thought.
But as her visit with her mom in Corner Brook, Newfoundland, progressed, Graham—who lives in Pictou, Nova Scotia—began to recognize that her mother had been successfully hiding increasingly apparent signs that her memory was failing; she wasn’t getting by as well as she had been letting on. So began the arduous process of finding and securing a safe place for her mother to live—and of clearing out several decades’ worth of belongings.
Part memoir, part cautionary tale, part how-to guide, Senior Moment offers insight and practical guidance for Atlantic Canadians on how to usher a loved one into the world of continuing care. With wit, wisdom, and a dose of whimsy, author Monica Graham explores the inevitable hurdles of caring for our elders.
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Clary Croft: My Charmed Life in Music, Art, and Folklore
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$22.95“I have led a charmed life. I know that, and I am grateful every day.”— Clary Croft
Folklorist, recording artist, actor, songwriter, broadcaster, storyteller, author, archivist, artisan, and designer: over a career spanning more than fifty years, Clary Croft has woven the threads of his vast array of talents into a tapestry that has enveloped the life of an artist, and in the process he’s become a household name in Nova Scotia and beyond.
With charming humility and cheeky humour, Clary shares memories and anecdotes of an eclectic career including his work with The Privateers, Sherbrooke Village, Singalong Jubilee, Neptune Theatre, CBC Mainstreet and, perhaps most importantly, his collaboration with eminent folklorist Helen Creighton.
Featuring a foreword by writer, broadcaster, and former co-host of CBC’s Singalong Jubilee Jim Bennet, and with more than fifty images in both colour and black and white, Clary Croft: My Charmed Life in Music, Art, and Folklore is an inspiring and entertaining chronicle of a creative life well lived.
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Imagining Anne L. M. Montgomery’s Island Scrapbooks
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$32.95Fall in love with Anne of Green Gables and the Island all over again through L. M. Montgomery’s scrapbooks, annotated by Montgomery scholar Elizabeth Epperly. Covering a period from 1893 to 1910, these full colour pages give the reader insight into the young author during the period when Anne Shirley came to life.
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Silver Hair and Golden Voice Austin Willis, from Halifax to Hollywood
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95Over his extensive career, Halifax-born film, television, and radio performer Austin Willis worked with luminaries from Orson Welles and Peter Sellers to a young William Shatner (his subordinate in CBC’s Space Command—precursor to Star Trek). He bested Goldfinger at cards—with help from Sean Connery’s James Bond—and with his prematurely white hair, he became the debonair, wry host of the 1970s CBC-TV quiz show, This Is The Law.
Through his formidable personal library, his insatiable curiosity, and his conversations with the man himself, oral historian and archivist Ern Dick has brought the voice of Austin Willis to life in the memoir Willis wanted to write—but didn’t, because he never stopped performing.
Featuring a foreword by former CBC Radio personality Costas Halavrezos, afterword by arts and culture commentator Ron Foley MacDonald, and dozens of photos that highlight Willis’s greatest moments of stage, screen, and airwaves, Silver Hair and Golden Voice offers a unique perspective on the life of one of Canada’s most overlooked stars.
