A follow-up to The Frog Lake Massacre, The Luck of the Horseman is a cleverly written ride from the days of the Wild West. The story begins ten years after the Frog Lake massacre. Jack Strong is doing a poor job of dealing with a devastating personal tragedy. He reconnects with Sam Steele, an old acquaintance and police officer, to assist in a hunt …

Children and teenagers experience Canada’s North in a way that adults do not. They have shaped its history, and yet how often are they asked to tell its story? Northern Kids is a collection of tales about the unforgettable young people of the Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and remote regions of the western provinces. Based on personal int …

With careful research and imagination, author Linda Goyette has created a collection of 25 stories based on the true stories of named children of the past and present.

Too often the youngest Canadians are erased from our historical memory. Rocky Mountain Kids provides firstperson creative non-fiction narratives from the region's children, many of wh …

Trained as a nurse and midwife, Elizabeth Evans never wanted to help set up the fledgling town of Aspen Coulee, Alberta, but travels there with her father when he agrees to become the town doctor. Housekeeper at the Evans’ house, Ann Montgomery hoped to keep all her San Francisco secrets locked in her ancient wedding chest.

It is 1907, and the Can …

Following the lead of her earlier bestselling books, Anny Scoones once again charms and inspires readers with her insights and observations. Using her experiences on a farm as a backdrop, Anny muses on the environment, fate, time and aging.

In this collection of personal memoirs, Anny reaches deeper into what nature, rural life and agriculture mea …

Between 1891 and 1924, D’Arcy Island, near Victoria, B.C., was a prison for a society of outcasts. The press called them “The Unfortunates.” Why? They had leprosy and they were Chinese. Their only contact with the outside world was a supply ship that came every three months to drop off food, opium and coffins.

Follow one “unfortunate,” Lim …

Valerie Green and Lynn Gordon-Findlay have put their ears to the walls of Vancouver Island’s historic homes and transcribed the whispered secrets of bygone days when folk of every description left their echoes in the buildings where they lived, worked, played, and died.

If the walls of a venerable mansion could speak, what stories would it tell? H …

On September 23, 1994, an unusual rescue operation took place in the chilly waters off Telegraph Cove, a tiny, picturesque village perched on Vancouver Island’s north coast. It was not stranded hikers or fishermen who needed help, but a large humpback whale, which had become hopelessly entangled in a rope that had fallen off a fishing boat.

The r …

With growing numbers of people turning to birdwatching as their favourite outdoor activity, this delightful book will be welcome.

Unlike the typical guidebook, this beautifully illustrated work brings readers the birding experience—the thrill of spotting a particular bird for the first time, the wonder of witnessing the easy power of a gyrfalcon� …

The popular view of Victoria's genteel history—all aristocratic colonists and Royal Navy dances—is about to be exploded. Yes, there were wealthy and well-born settlers, but the city's pioneers also included madams and murderers, seamstresses and saloonkeepers, who would never have been seated at the dinner tales of the upper class.

But all these …

How many times have you walked by or through an interesting old house, wondering about its past and what tales its walls could whisper if they could answer your questions? Although many of Victoria's heritage homes have disappeared, some remain—some rich and elegant and some working class. All have stories to tell.

Valerie Green offers the stories …

“Could I have been one of them?” That was what Sam McKinney wondered as he retraced, alone, the explorations of Captain George Vancouver and his men from Puget Sound to Queen Charlotte Sound. In the 1790s, they rowed for long hours day after day, camping on rocky beaches in all weathers and charting the intricate coastline for the first time. T …

Cowboy, logger, fisherman, writer, social activist, and grand adventurer! Sinclair’s fascinating life is set against the changing ranching, logging, fishing and mining industries that he wrote about and the publishing industry for which he wrote.

His story takes the reader from the old west of Montana, life in California, on to Vancouver and the l …

Walter B. Cheadle’s diary tells his incredible story of travelling with Lord Milton, as they journeyed along the uncharted Yellowhead route in 1862–63. A miraculously successful expedition, the men traversed the continent, making their way from Quebec, through Saskatchewan, Alberta, up the Athabasca River, risking their lives opening the trails …

A murder, a tryst, a mysterious child. A Victoria aristocrat who obsesses over her Churchill relatives. A repressive Welsh mother with a royalty fixation. A once-carefree Hesquiat girl from Nootka Sound. A dashing Icelandic philanderer. And quiet, steady Julia Godolphin, trying to rise above it all. The lost novel of Norma Macmillan, the Vancouver …

With sharp, witty reviews of the best spots in town to slake your thirst, Drinking Vancouver: 100+ Great Bars in the City and Beyond is the pocket-sized booze bible for locals and visitors craving a night out on the town. Divided into 11 neighbourhoods, each one with a handy map, visit many of the new, revamped and unique establishments from the he …

David Finch’s highly regarded biography of R.M. Patterson is now available in paperback. The escapades of this great Canadian are brought to life in a story that combines the lure of gold, the thrill of wilderness exploration and comic tales about life on a southern Alberta ranch. With access to Patterson’s diaries, letters and photographs, as …

Adrift on the Ark is a collection of personal essays by Margaret Thompson that offers a straightforward study of the complex relationship between human beings and the natural world. The essays look at a wide range of beings—from spiders to peacocks—and cover issues such as our irrational phobias, our fascination with zoos, and the myths and sto …

For well over a century, the bright seas of the Sunshine Coast have been attracting visitors to the waterfront resorts, fishing lodges and beaches that rest between Howe Sound and the spectacular Princess Louisa Inlet. These coastal hotspots and communities were settled by a few courageous and daring pioneers whose names are still familiar today: …

Celebrate the unique flavours, terroir and grape varieties that can be found only on the wine islands off the west coast. A collaborative effort from the writers of EAT Magazine, Island Wineries of British Columbia is your guide to a growing wine culture and the food movement that accompanies it. Starting with the history behind the region’s win …

It was 1862 and the Cariboo Gold Rush was in full swing. Sophia Cameron, the Beauty of Barkerville, lay dying of typhoid when her husband, John Cariboo Cameron, made one last promise to his fading young wife. The Promise is a compelling story of a great love and an epic struggle to honour a dying wife's final request: to take her body home to easte …

In a sequel to the celebrated collection of stories Nobody's Mother comes an honest and poignant collection of essays from men who have forgone fatherhood.

Statistics Canada data show that seven per cent of women and eight per cent of men intend to remain childless. Nobody's Father gives readers fresh, honest insights into that male eight per cent. …

The frantic pace of our world leaves little time for reflection, and even less time to nurture our spirits. In Havens in a Hectic World, Star Weiss explores the spiritual geography of the West Coast with individuals from a wide variety of faiths and cultural traditions. In visiting their sacred places, and hearing them share their stories, Weiss ra …

This first-hand account of a Canadian pioneer — the next title in TouchWood’s Classics West series — tells the story of a hard-won wilderness home and of the self-sufficient father and brothers who built it. Their tale of wanderlust begins in 1839 in Bytown, Ontario (later called Ottawa), with father Archie MacDonald, who reached his peak as …

Once available and appreciated only by researchers, these stories remained buried in the British Columbia Archives until 2007. Finally, readers are given a new glimpse into Emily Carr's life with this collection.. Carr began to write these stories in the last two years of her life. She wrote of the project: ... they are too small each to be taken s …

Once available and appreciated only by researchers, these stories remained buried in the British Columbia Archives until 2007. Finally, readers are given a new glimpse into Emily Carr's life with this collection. Carr began to write these stories in the last two years of her life. She wrote of the project: ". . . they are too small each to be taken …

Widely recognized as a classic of northern-exploration literature, A Journey to the Northern Ocean is Samuel Hearne's story of his three-year trek to seek a trade route across the Barrens in the Northwest Territories. Hearne was a superb reporter, from his anguished description of the massacre of helpless Eskimos by his Indian companions to his met …

In her best-selling first book, Home: Tales of a Heritage Farm (2005), Anny Scoones introduced readers to historic Glamorgan Farm. In Home and Away, Anny presents more stories about the joys and sorrows, excitements and mishaps and also takes readers farther afield, sharing with them her travels to other parts of Canada, to New York and to such pla …

Around One More Point is a journal sketchbook of writings, photographs and drawings that capture the adventures of B.C. artist and paddler Mary Gazetas, who has journeyed with family and friends on the west coast of Vancouver Island, the Inside Passage and Haida Gwaii for almost 25 years.

This work, with its powerful visual imagery, includes storie …

Finalist for the 2007 BC Book Prizes' Bill Duthie Booksellers' Choice Award

Statistics say that one in 10 women has no intention of taking the plunge into motherhood. Nobody's Mother is a collection of stories by women who have already made this choice.

From introspective to humorous to rabble-rousing, these are personal stories that are well and ho …

Adventures on wild waters

In Finlay's River, R. M. Patterson, whose style was described by noted author Bruce Hutchison as a a mixture between Thoreau and Jack London, tells the story of his 1949 trip up this wild river in remote northern British Columbia. Patterson uses his own journey as a framework to recount the adventures of explorers who went …

The first real look at the Canadian West

Harmon's Journal—the first published English-language journal written in B.C.-is a lively, engaging story that, unlike other early journals, captures the rough-and-tumble life of a fur trader and explorer in the western Canada of 200 years ago. Harmon's descriptions of the cultures and customs of the peopl …

The latest addition to TouchWood Editions’ Classics West Collection, Klondike Cattle Drive is the colourful tale of a formidable trek undertaken by legendary Cariboo rancher Norman Lee.

In 1898, Lee set out to drive 200 head of cattle from his home in the Chilcotin area of B.C. to the Klondike goldfields—a distance of 1,500 miles. He was gambli …

The wildest, loveliest and least-travelled region of Alberta was R.M. Patterson’s home territory in the 1930s and ’40s. The Buffalo Head ranch was located in the foothills of the majestic Canadian Rockies. With the mountains as a backdrop, this dude ranch hosted visitors from around the world. Patterson bought it from its founder, a wild Italia …

The stories in Far Pastures take readers to R.M. Patterson’s homestead in the Peace River country of northern Alberta. To all-night dances that ended as the northern lights faded in the dawn. To escapades on the Fort Nelson, Liard and South Nahanni rivers. And to a ranch in southern Alberta where he raised cattle during the lean years of the 1930 …

Illustrated with lush reproductions of Grant and Nixie's art and photographs of their amazing garden, The Romance Continues is a love story, an art-appreciation adventure and a garden tour, all wrapped up in one gorgeous volume. Nationally known artists Grant Leier and Nixie Barton are also husband and wife, parents and the creators of an astonishi …

Resting on what was left of the bench was something else, lighter in shade than the background, round, about the size of a cabbage. There were two large holes close together, a smaller pair below, then two rows of wedge-shaped objects. The pattern suddenly coalesced: in atavistic and chilling familiarity …

In a remote British Columbia lake, an an …

Babes in the woods. That’s how Ruth and Cliff Kopas were described by one of many colourful characters the pair encountered on their amazing journey across the Rockies through to British Columbia’s west coast in 1933.

Married on the day they left on their dangerous trek, Ruth and Cliff were eager for adventure, and their courageous spirits and …

Verity Sweeny Purdy at the age of eleven was sent to England to live with an aunt and train as a classical dancer. This memoir tells of her experience crossing Canada by train, the Atlantic Ocean by ship, and her arrival in England. Her story continues as she tells about her Aunt Doffrie and her bohemian way of life. We learn about her schooling an …

In this fascinating true story, Dyan Grant-Francis describes her life as a “reluctant” psychic, from childhood experiences she tried to ignore, to the gradual acceptance of her unique gifts.

From adventures in the High Arctic to ground- breaking medical research, this remarkable account takes place in a world that lies between science and metap …

Robert (Bob) Jones has had the pleasure of fishing Canada from coast to coast, and around the world. Warped Rods and Squeaky Reels tells of many funny fishing situations that have happened to him or one of his many friends and fishing companions. In Chapter Two, the author talks about his many memories and thoughts of fishing, Chapter Three deals w …

Like other young dreamers, Katie and Maurice Cloughley bought a boat and set off around the world. They met while taking sailing lessons in the west of England and after getting married, they worked for six years in northern Canada, earning the money for their ideal boat. When they found her, they renamed her Nanook of the North, planned for a five …

Seafaring stories in the Horatio Hornblower tradition, Midshipman Kirk, is filled with the rollicking adventures of Midshipman Eric Kirk and the iron screw corvette HMS Calcutta. The Calcutta patrols the Pacific coast in the 1880s and confronts Fenian plots, pirate raids, as well as the hazards of genteel social life in Victoria.