Month: November 2012

There are few new ways to praise the books by this author: witty, gentle, Scottish, loveable. The new one is all of these with the added dimension of a first-rate mystery plot.

The book falls in the Isabel Dalhousie series. McCall Smith is a retired professor at the University of Edinburgh. Readers will recognize books from the No l. Ladies’ Detective Agency series, the Portuguese Irregular Verbs series, the 44 Scotland Street series and the Corduroy Mansions series. In this one, we follow Isabel, the attractive young mother, as she edits her journal on ethics, cares for her musician husband and 3-year old son, Charlie. Into this busy life steps a request to help find the thief who stole a valuable Poussin painting from an old Scots household.

Isabel gets close to danger when she agrees to meet “accomplices of the thief.” Through clever questioning on her own, however, she manages to avoid serious trouble with the police, etc. We are left with a satisfactory ending that only McCall Smith could dream up. It makes for a very good read, Christmas-time, or any time.

Review by Anne McDougall

This is a long biography of one of our most distinguished poets, written by a professional friend who gets very close to P.K. Page’s life.

Page was born in England where her father served overseas in World War l. He decided to move his family to Canada, where he also had a military career. Both he and his wife were artistic, writing poetry and drawing respectively. Their daughter followed suit and got an audience for her poems at an early age.

Sandra Djwa has been professor of English at Simon Fraser University, and also published two books: “The Politics of the imagination:A Life of F.R. Scott” and “Professing English: A Life of Ray Daniells.” She was in a good position to accept P.K. Page’s request to write her biography, knowing well the literary circles across the country. She gives an excellent account of the exceedingly hard work that went into the developing of Page’s talent, after she decided to make writing her career – first in Halifax, then Montreal, Ottawa and finally Victoria, B.C. In Montreal, in particular, her name started appearing in poetry magazines more and more often as they started making their appearance in Canada.

It was in Montreal that she first met the Preview group in l94l. They were a group of poets who met and mimeographed their works; they included the poet and professor of law at McGill University, F.R. Scott, Margaret Day, Bruce Ruddick, Neufville Shaw and Patrick Anderson. Page was invited to join. She would meet most members of the avant-garde in Montreal, artists as well as writers. She would also fall in love for the first time, with a married man, F.R. Scott.

Djwa tells of Page’s eventual happy marriage to Arthur Irwin, legendary editor of Macleans magazine and head of the National Film Board. He was posted with Canada’s diplomatic corps to Australia, Brazil and Mexico. His beautiful wife was a great asset; she continued writing and eventually painting. When retired, Irwin took a post on Victoria’s newspapers, and they settled in that city. P.K. spent her latter years reading poetry in cities all across Canada where her stunning performances were as memorable as the poetry itself.

Review by Anne McDougall

This is a delightful and skilful memoir of Gordon Pinsent, one of Canada’s best-loved actors, written with the help of George Anthony, an entertainment editor who has worked in film, television and journalism. Together they have produced a very funny and impressive story of Pinsent’s life who today, at the age of eighty-two, is still in the business of acting.

Born in Grand Falls, Newfoundland, Pinsent was the last of six children, and was very often left to make up his own dream world. After he discovered movies at the weekly matinees of the Nickelodeon Theatre, he decided to be an actor. He was already good at sketching, and later poetry, but never had an acting lesson – which did not stop him from working his way to Toronto, doing odd jobs, later a stint in the army from which he was discharged in Winnipeg. Here he met the actor John Hirsch, got some parts, and was on his way.

Pinsent tells of his adventures in Hollywood, his encounter with Christopher Plummer at Stratford, and eventually the whole roster of Canadian actors. Most significant of these was the Toronto star, Charmion King, who became the love of his life. They were happily married for forty years until her death in 2007.

Pinsent has played major classical roles across the country on both televison and film and is remembered for The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), The Shipping News (2001), The Rowdyman (1972) and John and the Missus (1987). He won a Genie award for best actor in Away from Her (2006) and recently made his songwriting debut on the Warner Music CD Down and Out in Upalong.
This book is almost as entertaining as watching him act.

Review by Anne McDougall