Biography of traveller and eccentric. Spent much of his life in the "Barren Ground", Northwest Territories of Canada.

A new edition of the diary of Edgar Christian with introduction and editing by George Whalley. Author's personal account of journey with John Hornby and Harold Adlard to winter in the Thelon Game Sanctuary and to explore a new route from Great Slave Lake to Chesterfield Inlet.

Canada’s master storyteller returns to the North to chronicle the extraordinary stories of five inspiring and controversial characters. Canada’s master storyteller returns to the North to bring history to life. Prisoners of the North tells the extraordinary stories of five inspiring and controversial characters whose adventures in Canada’s frozen wilderness are no less fascinating today than they were a hundred years ago. We meet Joseph Boyle, the self-made millionaire gold prospector from Woodstock, Ontario, who went off to the Great War with the word “Yukon” inscribed on his shoulder straps, and solid-gold maple-leaf lapel badges. There he survived several scrapes with rogue Bolsheviks, earned the admiration of Trotsky, saved Romania from the advancing Germans, and entered into a passionate affair with its queen. We meet Vilhjalmur Steffansson, who knew every corner of the Canadian North better than any explorer. His claim to have discovered a tribe of “Blond Eskimos” brought him world-wide attention and landed him in controversy that would dog him the rest of his life. There is John Hornby, the eccentric public-school Englishman so enthralled with the Barren Grounds where he lived that he finally starved to death there with the two young men who had joined his adventures. Berton gives us a riveting account of the contradictory life of Robert Service — a world-famous poet whose self-effacement was completely at odds with his public persona. And we meet the extraordinary Lady Jane Franklin, who belied every last stereotype about Victorian women with her immense determination, energy, and sense of adventure. She travelled more widely than even her famous explorer husband, Sir John. And her indefatigable efforts to find him after his disappearance were legendary. A Yukoner himself, Berton weaves these tales of courage, fortitude, and reckless lust for adventure with a love for Canada’s harsh north. With his sharp eye for detail and faultless ear for a good story, Pierre Berton shows once again why he is Canada’s favourite historian.

For decades hidden in an archive in England: Critchell Bullock’s own account of his odyssey with John Hornby in 1924/25. In 2015 the archivist of Sherborne School (Dorset) disclosed the possession of Bullock's diary from his journey with John Hornby. An authentic and often very personal account, based on letters to a dear friend in England. A narrative about a winter spent in a self-dug cave on the edge of the Canadian Barren Lands, with intimate insights of hope and despair. About their ensuing journey on foot overland and by canoe down the Hanbury and Thelon Rivers, via Baker Lake and Chesterfield Inlet to Hudson Bay. Compiled from letters archived in the USA, Canada and England. Supplemented with content from Bullock's son's personal archive. Featuring unpublished photos, new insights into their journey and previously unknown details about John Hornby. Completed with Guy Houghton Blanchet's narration of a particular incident, never before published in full. “I can’t get over regretting that you did not yourself take the place of Waldron in writing the story of the Hornby-Bullock adventure.” Vilhjalmur Stefansson (May 1931) ​ “Why did not you write up your trip with Hornby yourself? And I might ask further – Why, since you have such a gift of fluent writing you don’t do something in that line?” Guy Houghton Blanchet (August 1950)

The Complete Polysyllabic Spree is Nick Hornby's wickedly funny journey through reading This is not a book of reviews. This is not a book that sneers at other books. This is a book about reading - about enjoying books wherever and however you find them. Nick Hornby, author of the bestsellers About a Boy and Fever Pitch - takes us on a hilarious and perceptive tour through the books he bought, the books he read and his thoughts on literature. He is first and foremost a reader and he approaches books like the rest of us: hoping to pick up one he can't put down. The Complete Polysyllabic Spree is a diary of sorts, charting his reading life over two years. It is a celebration of why we read - its pleasures, its disappointments and its surprises. And above all, it is for you - the ever hopeful reader. For fans of Bill Bryson and Stephen Fry, and for bookworms everywhere, this witty, passionate book will make you cherish the world of letters anew. 'An engaged and engaging ramble around one reader's mind' The Times 'Not only does it make you want to read more but, like all great books, it's also terrific company' Metro 'For anyone whose idea of a good time is arguing with friends about their favourite books...amusing and contagiously enthusiastic' Big Issue

An eminent Canadian man of letters, scholar, naval officer and secret intelligence agent, CBC scriptwriter, musician, biographer, and translator, George Whalley (1915-1983) was also a gifted poet whose work spans five decades. Along with his major critical work, Poetic Process, and his superb biography, The Legend of John Hornby, Whalley’s poetry is an important contribution to the emergence and development of twentieth-century modernism. The Complete Poems of George Whalley is the first collection of Whalley’s entire poetic oeuvre. It contains the previously published work from his two books of poetry, Poems 1939-1944 and No Man An Island, as well as pieces that appeared in periodicals and edited collections. It gathers all his unpublished poems found in public archives and his personal papers, letters, and journals. This collection reinforces Whalley’s place as the foremost Canadian poet of the Second World War, during and immediately after which the majority of these works were written. It also emphasizes the humour and playfulness of his early and late poems. Michael DiSanto’s introduction provides an overview of Whalley’s life and career, and examines the relationship between his poetics and criticism by consulting his essays, letters, and unpublished papers. Restoring Whalley’s poetry and literary contributions to their rightful place in the Canadian canon, this comprehensive collection opens new chapters on mid-twentieth-century modernism and war poetry.

From Edward P. Jones comes one of the most acclaimed novels in recent memory—winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. The Known World tells the story of Henry Townsend, a black farmer and former slave who falls under the tutelage of William Robbins, the most powerful man in Manchester County, Virginia. Making certain he never circumvents the law, Townsend runs his affairs with unusual discipline. But when death takes him unexpectedly, his widow, Caldonia, can't uphold the estate's order, and chaos ensues. Edward P. Jones has woven a footnote of history into an epic that takes an unflinching look at slavery in all its moral complexities. “A masterpiece that deserves a place in the American literary canon.”—Time

Recreates the ill-fated journey of three young adventurers determined to prove they could survive in the Barren Grounds of the Canadian Northwest Territories in 1926, from a journal found two years after their demise.

Boldly go where few have gone before! Endorsed by the World Wildlife Fund. Features 26 colour and black-and-white photographs and maps. "The Power of the Barren Lands may be beyond words but you wonât come any closer than those on the following pagesâ¦" âMONTE HUMMEL West of Hudson Bay in Canadaâs north, an enormous triangle, twice the size of Alberta or Texas, forms the largest chunk of wilderness left on the continent. The word "tundra" may conjure up an image of a desolate, treeless plain, but this mainland portion of the Canadian arctic is far from featureless. The area is home to millions of geese and other birds, and is the haunt of some of the worldâs last, great migratory herds of large herbivores and the predators that follow them. Discovering Eden is a collection of stories, essays and commentaries about the authorâs life in the remote wilderness and his hopes and dreams for its future. It is about the land and the animals that live there, and what they have taught the author. Throughout the book the author tries to explain, within the limitations of language, the lure of the Barren Lands and why this place became for him a personal Eden. The book also recounts adventuresâa personal, inner one for the author, and the thrill of canoeing this untouched wilderness for those who travel with him on his tours.(September 2003)