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List, Haunting Vancouver: A Nearly True History (Harbour $32.95)
Some of the best writers don't win prizes but they are the quiet heroes of the publishing world. They keep our history alive or they keep the book industry afloat by making books that people want to own. The ever-affable Mike McCardell does both. He has also arranged for his publisher and Global TV to donate more than $90,000 generated by book sales to Variety, The Children's Charity.
Hired by the Vancouver Sun in 1973 as a police beat reporter, Mike McCardell went on to work for BCTV (Global BC) in 1976 and has since produced more than 9,000 mostly "human interest"; stories and ten books.
In his latest title to top the BC Bestseller List, Haunting Vancouver: A Nearly True History (Harbour $32.95), McCardell cheerfully revives tales of saloon-owner "Gassy"; Jack Deighton (the inspiration for Gastown), The Penthouse nightclub and how Pauline Johnson named Lost Lagoon.
He also introduces beloved lifeguard Seraphim "Joe"; Fortes, Vancouver's first openly gay politician A.E.B. Davie and China-born Chang Toy who rebelled against racist city planners and built the famous Sam Kee Building in Chinatown, the narrowest commercial building in the world.
Fairly described as "a rollicking tour of Vancouver history,"; this tenth tome is more than an amusing romp. With a consistent abhorrence of racism, McCardell has deftly crafted
a clever and informative overview of the city by adopting the persona of an "accidental immortal,"; Jock Linn.
McCardell clearly enjoys the artistic conceit he has adopted: His alter-ego Jock arrives with a detachment of British Army Royal Engineers in the 1850s, and dies in 1876. No problem. McCardell resurrects him as a time-travelling reporter with a shrewd sense of humour and a nose for fascinating facts.
McCardell, the former police reporter, is not averse to digging up a little dirt along the way. Always with a deft touch, never brazen, McCardell divulges, for instance, how and why the Canadian Pacific Railway line really got completed.
The real story of why John A. Macdonald partnered with the CPR to connect "sea to sea"; is cited here in Jock's seemingly innocuous piece about the locomotive called Engine 374. 9781550176063
Hired by the Vancouver Sun in 1973 as a police beat reporter, Mike McCardell went on to work for BCTV (Global BC) in 1976 and has since produced more than 9,000 mostly "human interest"; stories and ten books.
In his latest title to top the BC Bestseller List, Haunting Vancouver: A Nearly True History (Harbour $32.95), McCardell cheerfully revives tales of saloon-owner "Gassy"; Jack Deighton (the inspiration for Gastown), The Penthouse nightclub and how Pauline Johnson named Lost Lagoon.
He also introduces beloved lifeguard Seraphim "Joe"; Fortes, Vancouver's first openly gay politician A.E.B. Davie and China-born Chang Toy who rebelled against racist city planners and built the famous Sam Kee Building in Chinatown, the narrowest commercial building in the world.
Fairly described as "a rollicking tour of Vancouver history,"; this tenth tome is more than an amusing romp. With a consistent abhorrence of racism, McCardell has deftly crafted
a clever and informative overview of the city by adopting the persona of an "accidental immortal,"; Jock Linn.
McCardell clearly enjoys the artistic conceit he has adopted: His alter-ego Jock arrives with a detachment of British Army Royal Engineers in the 1850s, and dies in 1876. No problem. McCardell resurrects him as a time-travelling reporter with a shrewd sense of humour and a nose for fascinating facts.
McCardell, the former police reporter, is not averse to digging up a little dirt along the way. Always with a deft touch, never brazen, McCardell divulges, for instance, how and why the Canadian Pacific Railway line really got completed.
The real story of why John A. Macdonald partnered with the CPR to connect "sea to sea"; is cited here in Jock's seemingly innocuous piece about the locomotive called Engine 374. 9781550176063
Submitted on March 7, 2014 in By David.
