In 1983, at nineteen, Greg Nolan was hired (reluctantly) by his older sister’s boyfriend—a treeplanting contractor based in Northern British Columbia. His crewmates didn’t know what to think of the wide-eyed kid whose mom drove him the 750 kilometres to hook up with his first job. But within a week, Nolan was hitting the thousand-trees-a-day …

The office of Lieutenant Governor has been a constant in British Columbia from the province’s colonial beginnings to the modern era. Originally tasked with selecting the province’s premier and giving royal assent to provincial legislation, and invested with the power to dismiss governments, the role of the Crown’s representative has continual …

The BC tradition of fighting back against unfair pay and unsafe working conditions has been around since before the colony joined Confederation. In 1849 Scottish labourers at BC’s first coal mine at Fort Rupert went on strike to protest wretched working conditions, and it’s been a wild ride ever since. For years the BC labour movement was the m …

Gerry St. Germain's story begins in "Petit Canada" on the shores of the Assiniboine, growing up with his two younger sisters, his mother and his father--a shy Metis trapper and construction worker who sometimes struggled to put food on the table. St. Germain was initially troubled in school, scrapping with classmates and often skipping out to shoot …

This updated and expanded guide thoroughly documents every aspect of seaweed life, from species identification and seaweed biology to the essential--and often surprising--roles seaweed plays in the marine ecosystem and our everyday lives. Seaweeds are used in everything from cosmetics to sustainable biofuels, and some species, like kelp, contribute …

The children of the Tsimshian village of Kitkatla love to play at being hunters, eager for their turn to join the grown-ups. But when they capture and mistreat a crow, the Chief of the Heavens, angered at their disrespect, brings down a powerful storm.

The rain floods the Earth and villagers have no choice but to abandon their homes and flee to the …

Beginning in 1880, thousands of young, upper-class British men with few prospects were sent to the Canadian West to distance them from British society. Still supported by their families, thus earning them the title "remittance men," these men set out to continue their lives of leisure in this new land.

With education, respectable breeding and the b …

Is there such a thing as British Columbia culture, and if so, is there anything special about it? This is the broad question Dr. Maria Tippett answers in this work with an assured "yes!" To prove her point she looks at the careers of eight ground-breaking cultural producers in the fields of painting, aboriginal art, architecture, writing, theatre a …

Long-time journalist Cam Tait has seen some interesting times on the sports beat--rolling alongside Rick Hansen in the Man in Motion tour, playing in fundraising golf tournaments, and tipping back some cold ones with Wayne Gretzky, to name a few. His personal life hasn't lacked excitement either--memorable moments include parasailing, winning a sta …

"Lane is a poet more of the individual, hard-hitting poem; like physical blows, he wields his pieces like small threats of intense beauty."
--Globe and Mail

Following the success of his award-winning memoir There is a Season (2004) and his bestselling novel Red Dog, Red Dog (2008), Patrick Lane felt his celebrated poetry career might be at an end an …

Writer, environmentalist and gardener Des Kennedy has gathered together his best, most outrageous and most contemplative articles and essays of the past decade into a book full of playful wit and insight.

Kennedy recounts one newspaper's April Fool's Day prank that had men across the UK buying heather in order to propagate a poor-man's Viagra, expan …

Dogs are tops--35 percent of Canadian households include at least one canine--and anyone who's been owned by one (yes, that's right) will tell you why: we share in each other's joy and pain; they cheer us up when we're blue; they strive to please us and are indispensable workers, serving us even at their peril; we pamper and play with them, train t …

Seymour lies between the City of North Vancouver and Indian Arm and includes the communities of Dollarton, Deep Cove, the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation and the popular Mount Seymour winter sports complex. Compiled with the help of knowledgeable Seymour seniors of the Deep Cove Heritage Society, Echoes Across Seymour provides unparalleled insight into …

Carrying on "Irregardless" is a handsomely illustrated paperback based on the first exhibition to focus on humour in Northwest Coast First Nations art. The show, mounted by the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art in Vancouver is titled after one of Bill Reid's favourite deliberate grammatical blunders that were part of the sense of humour that …

Adrian Raeside has created a magical tale of adventure for pet lovers of all ages in The Rainbow Bridge. Using his gift for creating spunky characters, Raeside has created a valuable fable for anyone who cherishes the companionship of a family pet.

Seven-year-old Rick and his beloved dog Koko are inseparable. They cavort in the swimming hole, chase …

Okay, they didn't quite win the Stanley Cup, but the Vancouver Canucks still made their fortieth season in the NHL one to remember for years to come. After spending much of those four decades racking up a record of futility matched by few other sports franchises, the Canucks came closer to hockey supremacy than any Canadian team in eighteen years a …

The Catholic Congregation of the Sisters of St. Ann had a humble start in Quebec in 1850 and at first concentrated on teaching locally. But when Bishop Modeste Demers asked for help at his West Coast diocese, the Sisters said yes. At a time in history when most people were born and raised in the same area in which they would live and die, these wom …

In rhyming prose, sure to appeal to both children and their grown-up sous-chefs, this story is both informative and fun. Young readers spend a snowy northern afternoon in the warm kitchen with little Suzie, her dad and their zany sourdough circus, learning a simple method to bake wholesome and tangy sourdough bread.

Kids will be asking their parents …

"There was nothing but parties in Hogan's Alley," a black musician named Austin Phillips reminisced in 1977, "Night time, anytime, and Sundays all day. You could go by at 6 or 7 o'clock in the morning and you could hear the juke boxes going, you hear somebody hammering on the piano, playing the guitar, or hear somebody fighting."

The black ghetto of …

Rumble Seat is an evocative, poetically-written memoir of artist Helen Piddington's childhood in the Victoria suburb of Esquimalt--and what a childhood it was! The Piddingtons arrived from Quebec in 1924, and settled into a life that in many ways typified well-off Victoria families of the period. Helen's father, Major Arthur Grosvenor Piddington, w …

In this fascinating collection Canada's most entertaining sportswriter revisits the glories of a career following sporting events and personalities that spanned five decades. Name any memorable event--from Canada-Russia 1972 to Rick Hansen's Man in Motion tour--or any famous name from Wayne Gretzky to Muhammad Ali to the San Diego Chicken, and Jim …

We always knew James Barber played an important role in freeing us from our culinary hang-ups but it wasn't until he passed away in 2007 that a truly astonishing outpouring of tributes from famous chefs and ordinary cooks alike made clear the full extent of his impact. For James didn't just want to make us better cooks; he wanted to help us live be …

"Put aside the fact that it ended my playing career, punched holes in my memory and put life as I knew it on indefinite hold, it wasn't that tough a hit."

Thus begins Goin' Deep, Matt Dunigan's gritty, often startling memoir of his 14-year journey as a Canadian Football League quarterback, a career brought to a shattering halt on an afternoon in Ham …

Praise for the Cross-Canada Crosswords series:

“Cross-Canada Crosswords is...appealing not only for its Canadian content but also for its witty humour and challenging clues. This book is highly recommended... for the crossword enthusiast."
—Resource Links, October 2005

"They are clever, funny and Canadian in spelling and content"
—K. Joan Hebde …

Earle Birney (1904-1995), the father of modern Canadian poetry, was one of Canada's finest writers and the author of "David," arguably the most popular Canadian poem of all time. One Muddy Hand: Selected Poems features Birney's best work, spanning his entire writing career from 1926 to 1987.

Born in Calgary, Birney grew up in different parts of Alb …

Praise for the Cross-Canada Crosswords series:

"Cross-Canada Crosswords is...appealing not only for its Canadian content but also for its witty humour and challenging clues. This book is highly recommended... for the crossword enthusiast."
—Resource Links, October 2005

"They are clever, funny and Canadian in spelling and content"
—K. Joan Hebden, …

Jim Coleman saw the Victoria Cougars win the Stanley Cup in 1925 and the Team Canada-Russia hockey showdown in 1972. He saw Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth slam homers in training camp and was there when Jack Dempsey KO'd Jack Sharkey. He interviewed a young man named Jackie Robinson who wistfully dreamed of the day when black men might play in baseball's …

Dahlia Cassidy was so angry with herself that if she weren't busy driving her '57 Chev back from Tofino, she'd have used both feet to boot herself in the arse. She figured she was just about ready to swear off sex altogether, probably forever. She had let herself get talked into leaving her kids with a babysitter and spending a wild weekend at Long …

With unique insight and straightforward prose, Wingwalkers tells the saga of Canada's other airline, a scrappy western mongrel that, through eight decades and numerous name changes--Canadian Airways, Queen Charlotte Airlines, CP Air, PWA, Wardair and Canadian Airlines International--transformed itself from a bush flying and mining operation into an …

It is unlikely Hal Hammond ever dreamed his stories would achieve fame and immortality. But in the retelling of his father's stories, Dick Hammond has brought his father a wide audience twenty-six years after his death in 1975.

Hal Hammond worked as a logger, a tracker and a beachcomber during his time on the BC coast. Most of that was spent on the …

What was the three-letter last name of the Ladysmith native who is "the world's most recognizable Canadian?"

What is the four-letter name of the character Burnaby native Michael J. Fox played on Family Ties?

What's the four-letter word for the amount of clothing required at Wreck Beach?

What's the nine-letter pass near Sparwood where the CPR started c …

Here is the story of the unique vessels that make up BC history's fleet. The Beaver, the first steamer on the coast, played such an important role that its chunky form and the resonant thud, thud of its sidewheels are inseparable from 19th-century BC history. The Lady Alexandra, a passenger ship in the Union Steamship fleet, is remembered as one of …

In April 1999, the Inuit dream of a self-governing territory in the eastern Arctic - Nunavut (Our Land) - became a reality. In celebration of this historic event comes a new edition of Inuit Journey, a firsthand account of another turning point in Inuit history: the establishment in the early 1960s of member-owned, member-run Inuit co-operatives, w …

Craig has finally made first string on the high school football team and is looking forward to the season ahead. But suddenly his best friend Ray is surpassing him and everyone else on the football field. When Craig learns his friend is on steroids, or what Ray calls his "vitamin program," he decides to start a steroid program of his own.

At first 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 …

Jean Pritchard is a supermarket cashier, a news junkie and the mother of three: two teenagers who still live at home and another who speaks in italics and seems to have moved out. Then her kids start getting in fights for defending their Vietnamese neighbours, and her son takes up with "That Charlene," and her long-lost mother comes blasting out of …