The names Cook and Quadra ring a bell for most of us, as do Bering and Vancouver, but how much do we know about the Greek-born navigator, Juan de Fuca or the Machiavelli of the maritime fur trade, John Meares? British Columbia's earliest authors and explorers are skilfully introduced, for the first time collectively, by Alan Twigg. This is a compelling account of the characters, events and intrigues that comprised British Columbia's earliest literary history prior to 1800.

From Franz Boas to Alice Munro: welcome to an unprecedented panorama of the most significant authors and books of British Columbia culled from Alan Twigg's unrivalled knowledge of more than two centuries of B.C. literary history. The Essentials is the new bible of who wrote what, and why, in B.C., produced with the cooperation of Simon Fraser University Library and UBC's Rare Books & Special Collections. Alan Twigg, publisher/writer of B.C. BookWorld, also created the abcbookworld public r...

For over a quarter century, many readers have agreed with legendary publisher Jack McClelland, who said, “I have never before encountered a book journal as engaging as BC BookWorld.” But over several decades, the populist style of BC BookWorld has tended to overshadow its literary value and its essentially educational agenda. Here in The Best of BC BookWorld is a sampling of articles that entertain, enlighten, educate and provoke. About half are by Alan Twigg, who has written the majority ...

A thorough collection and examination of stories and perspectives from the Holocaust-related books of British Columbia authors, including nearly 100 black and white photographs.Holocaust witnesses will soon cease to exist. As Tolstoy famously put it, what is to be done? One answer is Out of Hiding, a cross-section of stories collected from one region of the globe, British Columbia, Canada, examining 85 authors and 160 books.Out of Hiding i...

Norwegian-born Dr. Louise Aall of Tsawwassen, B.C., studied medicine in Germany, France and Switzerland before working solo as an itinerant bush doctor in rural Tanganyika (now Tanzania). There she pioneered the treatment of epilepsy, establishing in 1959 her own remote clinic — which still exists today. She became the first Western physician to treat a variant of epilepsy that is now recognized by the WHO as “Nodding Syndrome.” The following year, Dr. Aall was asked by the Red Cross to fl...

For his third volume about BC literary history, Alan Twigg traces the writings of David Thompson, Alexander Mackenzie, Simon Fraser and thirty of their peers, mainly Scotsmen, who founded and managed more than fifty forts west of the Rockies prior to 1850. After the failure of Alexander Mackenzie and Simon Fraser to find a navigable route to the Pacific Ocean, it was the remarkable mapmaker, David Thompson, who was instrumental in creating the "highway" for commerce that connected both sid...

Alan Twigg has here recovered the amazing story of how George and Ingeborg while travelling in northern India in 1961 encountered many of the Tibetan refugees who had fled over the mountain passes. Appalled by the condition of the children, huddled together with inadequate bedding, surviving on a diet of thin soup and momos, steamed dumplings of mixed wheat and corn flour, they expressed their desire to help. "You must absolutely come and see uncle," said a young girl. This was Khando Yaps...

Following the success of First Invaders (Ronsdale, 2004), Alan Twigg turns his attention to First Nations writers, unearthing more than 300 books by more than 170 mostly unheralded British Columbia aboriginal authors. Taking the reader from residential schools to art galleries, this lively and unprecedented panorama of British Columbia includes trailblazer Pauline Johnson, political organizer George Manuel and Haida carver Bill Reid. Equally important, Aboriginality sheds new light on fasc...

Heroes of the Acadian Resistance tells the unique and little-known story of the young men who led an Acadian resistance in 18th century Nova Scotia. They fought valiantly in a guerilla campaign against the British to save their homes and families from destruction and deportation.Their battle was against a form of ethnic cleansing that saw British soldiers burn every remnant of the Acadian community -- homes, barns and churches. All Acadians who the soldiers were able to ro...

For thousands of young British girls, the influx of Canadian soldiers conscripted to Britain during the Second World War meant throngs of handsome young men. The result was over 48,000 marriages to Canadian soldiers alone, and a mass emigration of British women to North America and around the world in the 1940's.For many brides, the decision to leave their family and home to move to a country thousands of miles away with a man they hardly knew brought forth ensuing happiness. For o...

Love history? Know your stuff with History in an Hour.The Holocaust, in which 11 million people died, was the largest atrocity of the 20th century and perhaps the hardest to understand. Approximately 6 million Jews and 5 million others including Roma people, Poles, Russian prisoners of war, political prisoners, homosexuals, people of colour, Jehovah's Witnesses, and various other minorities were first persecuted and then murdered.How, both morally and logistically, had this...

Read the devastating story of the Spanish flu - the twentieth century's greatest killer – and discover what it can teach us about the current Covid-19 pandemic.'Both a saga of tragedies and a detective story... Pale Rider is not just an excavation but a reimagining of the past' GuardianWith a death toll of between 50 and 100 million people and a global reach, the Spanish flu of 1918–1920 was the greatest human disaster, no...