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list price: $19.95
edition:Paperback
also available: eBook
category: Biography & Autobiography
published: Jun 2009
ISBN:9781894974523
publisher: Heritage House Publishing

Never Shoot a Stampede Queen

A Rookie Reporter in the Cariboo

by Mark Leiren-Young

tagged: personal memoirs
Description

Winner of the 2009 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour

 

The cops wanted to shoot me, my bosses thought I was a Bolshevik, and a local lawyer warned me that some people I was writing about might try to test the strength of my skull with a steel pipe. What more could any young reporter hope for from his first real job?

 

The night Mark Leiren-Young drove into Williams Lake, British Columbia, in 1985 to work as a reporter for the venerable Williams Lake Tribune, he arrived on the scene of an armed robbery. And that was before things got weird. For a 22-year-old from Vancouver, a stint in the legendary Cariboo town was a trip to another world and another era. From the explosive opening, where Mark finds himself in a courtroom just a few feet away from a defendant with a bomb strapped to his chest, to the case of a plane that crashed without its pilot on board, Never Shoot a Stampede Queen is an unforgettable comic memoir of a city boy learning about—and learning to love—life in a cowboy town.

About the Author

Mark Leiren-Young is an award-winning author, screenwriter, playwright and filmmaker. He is the author of three books about whales for children: Orcas Everywhere: The Mystery and History of Killer Whales (which was short-listed for a Red Cedar Book Award and the Information Book Award and won the City of Victoria Children’s Book Prize), Orcas of the Salish Sea and Big Whales, Small World (which were all commended as selections for the 2020 CCBC Best Books for Kids & Teens). He has also written two books about sharks, including Sharks Forever: The Mystery and History of the Planet’s Perfect Predator (which was commended as an Honor Book for the 2023 Green Earth Book Award) and Big Sharks, Small World. He has written TV shows for young viewers for Netflix, CBC, ABC, BBC Kids and PBS. He wrote, directed and produced the award-winning documentary The Hundred-Year-Old Whale. Mark hosts the podcast Skaana, sharing ocean stories, and is actively involved in the fight for the survival of the endangered southern resident orcas. He lives in Saanich, British Columbia.

Editorial Reviews

“Williams Lake comes across as the Wild West mixed with Capone-era Chicago with a soupcon of Jim Crow Deep South segregation and an unsavory dash of perversion. And that’s just in the first chapter. —Tom Hawthorn, the Globe and Mail


[E]ach tale grabs my attention and holds on tight —John Robert Colombo


Loved it! . . . I salute you, sir. Thanks for a great read. —Zachary Petit, Managing Editor, Writer's Digest


An absolute charmer in the Stuart McLean/Will Ferguson vein. —John Threlfall, Monday Magazine

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