Since 1975, Ken Norris has produced some of Canada’s most intriguing poetry. Whether detailing the amorous lives of produce (Vegetables), documenting travels to the South Seas (The Better Part of Heaven and Islands), engaging contentious social and political issues (In the Spirit of the Times and In the House of No), or taking the measure of the …

On her seventh birthday, Pauline rode across the lawns on her street followed by her best friend Henry, he on the blue wooden horse, she on the red. On the seventh lawn at the top of the street, she collapsed, becoming a sudden victim of the polio outbreak of the summer of 1954.

Five years later, when In the Clear begins, she has survived, but paid …

"P class=""book_description"">A delightful and informative trek across the globe by a witty, intelligent, and courageous Victorian artist and adventurer.

In 1871, at age 41, Marianne North, an artist with a keen interest in botany, decided to travel the world on a quest to paint as many plants and flowers as she could find in their natural habitat. …

Captain Ed Shields tells the comprehensive history of the North Pacific codfish industry, shedding light on the lives of the men who sailed to the Bering Sea in search of cod from the 1860s until 1950. He describes the work that went into preparing the fishing fleet for five months on the high seas and ensuring that the ships came back safely with …

"Merv Wilkinson and Wildwood, his small patch of forest, provide powerful evidence that a forest can be logged while its integrity is maintained in perpetuity. In speaking out against current industrial clear-cut logging practices, Merv has become a genuine Canadian hero. Uncompromising, tough, fearless and with a wonderful sense of humour, he is …

There may be no other sailing ship in North America that has touched the lives of so many people during 80-plus years of existence as HMCS Oriole. The design of famed MIT marine architect George Owen, the pride of original owner George Gooderham, commodore of the Royal Canadian Yacht Club, the steadfast training ship of the Royal Canadian Navy for …

City of Vancouver Heritage award winner, 2003

Frank Gowen's Vancouver extended from White Rock to the Sunshine Coast, as the photographer and his camera explored the playgrounds and edifices of a vibrant West Coast community. In the city itself, Stanley Park, and particularly the park's famed Hollow Tree, became Gowen's personal domain.

In this er …

Lotus Land's scandals of the past 130 years may seem to be all about money, but there's also been sex, corruption, staggering incompetence and outright lies. Jump aboard as veteran political junkie William Rayner explores BC's scandal-ridden history. Read about the comely juror and the murder suspect, the two politicians who fell in love on the jo …

Buying Saffron, a 24-foot racing sailboat, was an act of desperation meant to help single parent June Cameron and her youngest son validate themselves. It did that and more. A friend persuaded June to race the boat, and over the next decade June, either solo or with her all-female crew, competed in BC's major sailing races, taking home a lot of the …

This fourth collection of short stories written by Robert James (Jim) Challenger combines the timeless appeal of Aesop's fables with the oral storytelling traditions of First Nations and other cultures. Each story stimulates conversation about the moral woven within.

Go along on Salmon's journey. Learn how Hermit Crab found a new home. Discover why …

In 1895, the arctic explorer Captain Ian Ryder has let his house in Blackpool on the Nova Scotia coast to the recently married Clara Weiss, who is about to become the compass of a social circle far too intimate for its own good. Lost in a maze of obsessive Victorian pseudo-science and its ignorant fascinations with violence, spiritualism, the rean …

The long-awaited sequel to BC children's classic Jason and the Sea Otter.

This delightful story of a Nuu-chah-nulth boy explores First Nations traditions and values through the making of a canoe. Jason's first canoe is crushed during a storm, and he must replace it. Through Uncle Silas, he learns the traditional methods of canoe building - plus scor …

Alberta has long been a big part of the frantic Canadian hockey scene, and even before Alberta became a province in 1905, the intense hockey rivalry between Calgary and Edmonton was in full swing. Long before the glory days of the '80s, teams from Edmonton and Calgary worked each other over with relish and passion, all the while creating a hockey r …

In the mid-1800s, Victoria grew from a fur-trading post into a provincial capital—the jewel in British Columbia's golden crown. Meanwhile, many of the early residents, happy to leave the Hudson's Bay Company behind, followed simple trails from the fort or discovered new routes of their own. In her first book, Danda Humphreys introduced readers to …

John R. Jewitt's story of being captured and enslaved by Maquinna, the great chief of the Mowachaht people, is both an adventure tale of survival and an unusual perspective on the First Nations of the northwest coast of Vancouver Island.

On March 22, 1803, while anchored in Nootka Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island, the Boston was attacke …

Whether in Canada, the United States, Australia, India, Peru, or Russia, the approximately 500 million Indigenous Peoples in the world have faced a similar fate at the hands of colonizing powers. Assaults on language and culture, commercialization of art, and use of plant knowledge in the development of medicine have taken place all without consent …

Work by writers of Chinese-Canadian heritage have achieved international success: this includes books by Wayson Choy, SKY Lee, and Denise Chong, as well as the acclaimed anthology of Chinese-Canadian fiction, Many Mouthed Birds. Swallowing Clouds collects the work of some of the most vibrant and exciting Chinese-Canadian poets working today, being …

Jailbirds and Stool Pigeons is a story of human weakness. Featuring true crime stories of the Pacific Northwest from the 1880s to 1935, this book is full of flawed characters. Tom McCarty, mentor to Butch Cassidy and Matt Warner, led his clan into a life of crime showing no remorse for crimes they committed. Charles McDonald and George Frankhouser …

The illegal drug trade in BC's Lower Mainland is a ruthless business. Danger is extreme, stakes are high, human lives are expendable. In this white-knuckled crime thriller set in the thick of drug dealing and organized crime, the action gets underway with a murder, followed by more murders and suicide. In the course of the story, a sophisticated yo …

It's fun, it's easy, and it's rewarding. There is nothing quite like a harvest of Dungeness crabs to set the tone for a perfect shoreline feast. Charlie White, with Nelson Dewey's clever illustrations, shows how beginners and experienced crabbers alike can benefit from his decades of experience. Whether you use crab traps or the traditional shoreli …

With over 120 illustrations, How to Catch Shellfish shows you how, where and when to catch clams, oysters, mussels, prawns and other shellfish. Also included are:

• equipment tips.
• easy ways to shuck oysters and open and clean other shellfish
• how to outrace razor clams
• shoreline recipes

When gold was discovered on the Fraser River, the rush was on. By early spring of 1858 the need for shelter, food, rest stops and stores became very apparent, as miners and would-be-miners made their way up into the hinterland. From Yale to Barkerville, roadhouses sprung up along the Cariboo's gold-rush trail. From their crude beginning, the roadho …

Over a whole bunch of decades, Ted “Chilco” Choate has spun a full quota of trail guide yarns. Along the way he also learned to fabricate a line or two that would help get him out of a jam. With that in mind it seems fitting that Chilco offers his autobiography as “being more than 90 percent true.”

A seasoned big-game guide and outfitter, C …

London, 1483. From the aged Duchess of York, who is 99 years old and will never sit on the throne, to the young Lady Anne who will marry Richard III in order to reign, Chaurette traces the shifting passions and ambitions of six women drawn from Shakespeare’s theatre and portray them here in the timelessness of their quest. As Ernst Kantorowicz ha …

During WWII, Jed’s English father serves as a fighter pilot overseas, while Jed and his mother move back to her Tsimshian community on Canada's west coast. When the military sets up a naval base in town, Jed is hired to help out, honored it seems, for both his father's bravery and his own native skills as a hunter. Presented with a military jack …

The most all-encompassing compendium of truly valuable information on steelhead ever written. —Jack Hemingway

There are exceptional chapters on the fish itself; the tackle and techniques used to pursue it under diverse circumstances in such great steelhead rivers as the Deschutes, the Dean, the North Umpqua, the Bulkley, the Rogue and the Babine, …

These stories by Jeff Lederman, who operates the Island Wildlife Natural Care Centre on Salt Spring Island, illustrate the challenges faced by the people who work to save wildlife. The Centre is a registered charity dedicated to the rescue and rehabilitation of sick, injured and orphaned wild animals. Lederman's recollections of some of the animals …

In 1995, Peter Johnson went looking for a rare set of petroglyphs located on the outer coast of Vancouver Island near an abandoned whaling village. Encouraged by archival research that yielded court records, 90-year-old correspondence and a tantalizing 1926 newspaper article, Peter sought to tie these glyphs to the 1869 wreck of the trading barque …

In his debut book, Greg offers guidance to over 50 dives in five areas Metchosin and Race Rocks, Victoria, Sansum Narrows, Saanich Inlet, Sidney and the Southern Gulf Islands.

Diver’s Guide, Vancouver Island South is fully illustrated with Greg’s own computer-generated maps, based on his personal exploration of these underwater environments, an …

Jack Shaw spent a lifetime studying trout and the insects they feed on, with the aim of creating fly designs that would attract the wiliest of fish. In this edition of his bestselling book, he tells fly fishers how they too can challenge trophy trout with homemade flies. Jack provides information on basic equipment and materials and gives instructi …

Scalpels and Buggywhips tells the incredible story of the medical pioneers of Central BC. These medical giants treated everything from scurvy to bear bites. They delivered babies and performed surgeries. Their endurance and courage was surpassed only by that of their wives. Eldon Lee tells of Horace Cooper Wrinch, the missionary doctor of Hazelton; …

Robert James Challenger uses the form of parables to teach children important values. The observations of Grandmother and other family members interpret the actions of nature's creatures in a variety of circumstances. His simple, direct stories reflect a philosophy widely embraced—respect for our environment and understanding of all creeds, races …

This collection of west-coast fables combines the approach of Aesop with the oral tradition of First Nations storytellers. Woodpecker shows how to be a true friend. Beaver demonstrates how to achieve dreams through hard work. Rainbow Trout finds that all things in nature have a purpose.

Parents, grandparents and teachers will embrace Robert James C …

Since 1919, the Memorial Cup championship has provided excitement for all hockey fans and happy hunting grounds for National Hockey League scouts. It has shaped the way junior hockey is played in North America. Harbour Publishing is proud to present the very first book devoted to our national junior final and its heart-pounding history.

So come on i …

Co-published with Presentation House Gallery, It Pays to Play: British Columbia in Postcards, 1950s--1980s reveals the province as it was represented in popular, photographic colour postcards from the early '50s through to the emergence in the '80s of the present post-industrial, global economy.
Following the Second World War, North America under …

This is the story of Dr. Eldon Lee and his first practice in Hazelton, BC. Lee was the region's first obstetrician, and he delivered more than 4,500 babies. In an era of corporate medicine and malpractice insurance, Lee's story is a refreshing reminder of what doctoring is all about.

In the 1940s, Eldon left the family ranch to join the air forc …

This collection of short stories is based on traditional values important to us all—respect, cooperation and kindness. Robert James Challenger's illustrations and tales reveal a world of magical birds, fish and other wildlife, who teach readers lessons about life and the world.

Seal shows us why we should not let fear of failing stop us from tryi …

One morning it starts raining in Cassidy's house, and nobody can get it to stop. Like everyone else, Cassidy figures it's just a problem with the pipes. She doesn't know that she's about to embark on the ride of her life. She doesn't know that before the year is out, she will have wound up in hospital with every bruise and welt from her twenty-year …

Ancient Forests untangles the complexity of old-growth forests. Termites, slime molds, owls and flying squirrels seem more like neighbours, thanks to the activities in this engaging, scientifically accurate book, which helps children see the interconnections between nature and people. Winner of a MAPA Award–Honorable Mention for editing.

• Expl …

“The most shameful incident in Canadian Maritime history” occurred in January 1906 when the steamer Valencia hit rocks off the treacherous west coast of Vancouver Island, only 100 feet from shore. Over the next 40 hours the vessel was pounded to pieces. More than 80 people, many of them women and children, drowned. Men watching from the shore …

From 1910 to 1975, superb coastal liners of Grand Trunk Pacific Railway and, later, the Canadian National Railway plied the waters of coastal BC, connecting Vancouver, Victoria and Seattle to Prince Rupert and southeastern Alaska. Here is the little-known story of these ships, brought to life by BC's foremost marine historian and well illustrated w …

Who rode sidesaddle 300 miles a century ago to become Chilcotin's first housewife? What rancher carried a portable piano in his buckboard? Who started the Williams Lake and the Ahaheim Lake Stampede? A vivid text and over 200 photographs recall pioneer life in the ranching country that extends westward some 200 miles from the Fraser River to Anahim …

In this humorous book, Ron Purvis illustrates why after 14 years of teaching at St. George's Indian Residential School in Lytton, BC, he had a lingering suspicion that his First Nations charges had crammed a great deal more wisdom into him than he'd imparted to them.

In the manner of a good fireside chat with a favourite aunt or uncle, Life in the Cariboo chronicles the Lees' life in one of BC's most rugged areas. We hear about swamp ranches, education by mail, life before universal TV. Best of all, there are tales of some of the Cariboo's legendary - almost mythical - characters, such as Annie Basil and the ki …

Indian legends of the Northwest. These never-before-published legends were collected by pioneer merchant and attorney Judge Arthur E. Griffin, beginning in 1884. They have been passed down through five generations of the Griffin family, and have now been edited for publication by Trenholme J. Griffin. The great-grandson of the judge, Tren is steepe …

One of the world's most beautiful and famous city parks, is Stanley Park located in Vancouver. This year round playground offers the ocean, the mountains, wildlife, freshwater lakes, cedar trees, totem poles, woodland trails and a unique Seawall Promenade. Vancouver's famous Stanley Park, by Mike Steele is a complete guide to this outdoor marvel. I …

This second book by the Vancouver Sun columnist, author of the successful Robin Ward's Vancouver, offers 60 drawings of structures in Vancouver, Victoria, Seattle and points between. The Sun Yat Sen Gardens and Cathedral Place in downtown Vancouver, the Empress Hotel and Eaton Centre in Victoria, historic structures in Britannia Beach and Port Town …