BC Books Online was created for anyone interested in BC-published books, and with librarians especially in mind. We'd like to make it easy for library staff to learn about books from BC publishers - both new releases and backlist titles - so you can inform your patrons and keep your collections up to date.
Our site features print books and ebooks - both new releases and backlist titles - all of which are available to order through regular trade channels. Browse our subject categories to find books of interest or create and export lists by category to cross-reference with your library's current collection.
A quick tip: When reviewing the "Browse by Category" listings, please note that these are based on standardized BISAC Subject Codes supplied by the books' publishers. You will find additional selections, grouped by theme or region, in our "BC Reading Lists."
A young Canadian spitfire pilot finds adventure, love, and a remarkable dose of luck on the frontlines of the Second World War.
Rejected by the Royal Canadian Air Force in the summer of 1939, Keith “Skeets” Ogilvie joined the British Royal Air Force instead. A week later he was on a boat to England and a future he could not have imagined.
As a Spitfire pilot in the Battle of Britain, Skeets established his credentials with six confirmed victories and several enemy aircraft damaged. On leave in London one weekend, he met Irene Lockwood, a charming fellow Canadian who was living out her own wartime adventure—and who would one day become his wife. The following July, Skeets was shot down over France and was treated for grievous injuries by top German surgeons. He waited out the rest of the war at Stalag Luft III prison camp and was the second-last man out of the “Great Escape” tunnel, only to be recaptured three days later. For reasons he never understood, Skeets was one of only twenty-three escapees not murdered by the Gestapo.
The Spitfire Luck of Skeets Ogilvie is the story of an ordinary man who beat incredible odds on the frontlines, and the remarkable woman with whom he was reunited at the end of the War.
“This is a new and fresh telling [of the Battle of Britain], admirably sourced, textually and graphically crisp, a convincing chronicle of people making the best of trying circumstances. Keith Ogilvie’s statement of purpose is 'not just to talk about the extraordinary but to celebrate the ordinary too, as being extraordinary in its own right. He delivers.”
“This is more than just a typical family history—this is the remarkable story of a very lucky man, one who took part in the aerial fight for England, who had to bale out when his aircraft was shot down, was captured by the Germans and endured years in prisoner-of-war camps—and to top it off, was one of the few survivors of the famous Great Escape. Highly readable and highly moving."