A young Canadian marches over the Pyrenees and enters into history by joining the International Brigades—men and women from around the world who volunteered to fight against fascism in the Spanish Civil War. This new edition of Ted Allan’s novel, This Time a Better Earth, reintroduces readers to the electrifying milieu of the Spanish Civil War and Madrid, which for a short time in the 1930s became the epicentre of a global struggle between democracy and fascism. This Time a Be...

In a tight, dramatic, two-character, two-act play Ted Allan, one of Canada's best-known playwrights, challenges us to think again about love and guilt, about madness and normalcy. My Sister's Keeper was first produced at the 1976 Lennoxville Festival in Quebec. (an earlier version, entitled 'I've Seen You Cut Lemons,' had been directed by Sean Connery at the Fortune Theatre in London in 1970.) It is a play about sensitivity and about victims; about what we do to each other and particularly...

Originally published in the early 1950s, The Scalpel, the Sword celebrates the turbulent career of Dr. Norman Bethune (1890-1939), a brilliant surgeon, campaigner against private medicine, communist, and graphic artist. Bethune belonged to that international contingent of individuals who recognized the threat of fascism in the world and went out courageously to try to defeat it.Born in Gravenhurst, Ontario, Bethune introduced innovative techniques in treating battlefield i...