Night We Stole The Mountie S Car

Max Braithwaite has the unique capacity to be both tender and caustic – both nostalgic and uncompromisingly honest. He is also one of Canada’s few original humorists. All these qualities are present in his latest bittersweet recollections of life on the Prairies during the early Thirties. It was a time of depression and drought; but for Max, a young schoolteacher, it was also a time for courtship and marriage, for those hilarious episodes in Wannego, Saskatchewan, which did much to belie the grimness of the era. There was Max’s disastrous umpiring of a Ladies’ Softball game; his writing and directing of a play that generated more drama off-stage than on; the awful problem of the wasps at the outhouse, and much, much, more. The Night We Stole the Mountie’s Car follows Never Sleep Three in a Bed and Why Shoot the Teacher? and completes the story of Max’s early years. It is also Braithwaite at his vintage best – lusty, thought-provoking, and consistently amusing.

"Max Braithwaite has the unique capacity to be both tender and caustic - both nostalgic and uncompromisingly honest. He is also one of Canada's few original humorists. All these qualities are present in his latest bittersweet recollections of life on the Prairies during the early Thirties. It was a time of depression and drought; but for Max, a young schoolteacher, it was also a time for courtship and marriage, for those hilarious episodes in Wannego, Saskatchewan, which did much to belie the grimness of the era. There was Max's disastrous umpiring of a Ladies' Softball game; his writing and directing of a play that generated more drama off-stage than on; the awful problem of the wasps at the outhouse, and much, much, more. The Night We Stole the Mountie's Car follows Never Sleep Three in a Bed and Why Shoot the Teacher? and completes the story of Max's early years. It is also Braithwaite at his vintage best - lusty, thought-provoking, and consistently amusing."--://penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/17408/night-we-stole-mounties-car#9781551996493.

"Brij V. Lal is a singular scholar. His work has spanned disciplines—from history to politics—and genres—from conventional monograph history, to participant history, political commentary, encyclopaedia, biography and faction. Brij is without doubt the most eminent scholar Fiji has ever produced. He also remains the most significant public intellectual of his country, despite having been banned from entering it in 2009. He is also one of the leading Pacific historians of his generation, and an internationally recognised authority on the Indian diaspora. This Festschrift volume celebrates, reflects upon and extends the life and work of this colourful scholar. The essays, whose contributors are drawn from across the globe, do more than review Brij’s work; they also probe his contribution to both scholarly and political life. This book will therefore serve as an invaluable guide for readers from all walks of life seeking to better situate and understand the impact of Brij’s scholarly activism on Fiji and beyond." — Clive Moore, University of Queensland "It is a pleasure to commend this collection of very different essays that celebrate, reflect upon and extend the life and work of a remarkable scholar. Although I have had, at times, a close association with Brij Lal’s life and work, I have learned much from reading this book. It provokes further thought about the course of democracy in Fiji, and the very sorry state and future of Pacific history and the humanities in academia. Here is a timely assertion of the significance and major contribution that courageous scholars such as Brij have made to the study and public awareness of these areas of concern." — Jacqueline Leckie, University of Otago

In Other Words is a lively, charming, gossipy memoir of life in the publishing trenches and how one restlessly curious young woman sparked a creative awakening in a new country she chose to call home. “We need our own dreams.” —Anna Porter When Anna Porter arrived in Canada in early 1968 with one battered suitcase, little money and a head full of dreams, she had no idea that this country would become her home for the rest of her life, or that she would play a major role in defining what it means to be Canadian. And where better to become a Canadian than at the dynamic publishing house, McClelland & Stewart, an epicentre of cultural and artistic creation in post-Expo Canada? Anna Porter’s story takes you behind the scenes into the non-stop world of Jack McClelland, the swashbuckling head of M&S whose celebrated authors—Leonard Cohen, Margaret Laurence, Pierre Berton, Peter C. Newman, Irving Layton, Margaret Atwood—dominated bestseller lists. She offers up first-hand stories of struggling young writers (often women); of prima donnas, such as Roloff Beny and Harold Town, whose excesses threatened to sink the company; of exhausted editors dealing with intemperate writers; of crazy schemes to interest Canadians in buying books. She recalls the thrilling days at the helm of the company she founded in the 1980s, when Canada’s writers were suddenly front-page news. As president of Key Porter Books, she dodged lawsuits, argued with bank managers, and fought to sell Canadian authors around the world. This intriguing memoir brings to life that time in our history when—finally—the voices Canadians craved to hear were our own. In Other Words is a love letter to Canada’s authors and creative agitators who, against almost impossible odds, have sustained and advanced the nation’s writing culture. Moving effortlessly from the boardrooms of Canada’s elite and the halls of power in Ottawa, to the threadbare offices of idealistic young publishers and, ultimately, to her own painful yet ever-present past in Hungary, Porter offers an unforgettable insider’s account of what is gained—and lost—in a lifetime of championing our stories.

Canadian Literary Landmarks

If Why Shoot the Teacher, Never Sleep Three in a Bed, and The Night We Stole the Mountie’s Car made you smile, chuckle, and laugh out loud, then here (as the man said) is just the book for you! Yes, Max is back! And Braithwaite fans, along with anyone who reads for the warm companionship of a good laugh and some delightful insight, need look no further. Here is Max’s Book of Books – the wit and wisdom of a forty-year career that has won the author hundreds of thousands of book-reading and movie-going fans, and a Stephen Leacock Award for Humour as well. Here is Braithwaite on growing up on the prairies in the twenties and thirties, on the growing pains associated with raising children of your own, on Ontario, where he now lives, on himself, and on his writing career. Each fiction and non-fiction piece in this colourful collection is prefaced by the author with a short introduction dealing with the work itself and the author’s own feelings about it. Together, these personal observations provide a warm and insightful look at one man’s career and personal life throughout a lifetime of writing for and about Canadians. Max: The Best of Braithwaite brings together all the places, times, and faces – pensive, nostalgic, humorous – that Braithwaite fans have come to expect and love. Maximum Braithwaite indeed!

Set in the Saskatchewan prairies during the Depression, Why Shoot the Teacher is the Canadian classic that tells the story of a young man’s first collision with reality: an ill-paid teaching assignment in an isolated country school. This autobiographical novel is riotous, grim, candid, and infinitely entertaining. While it is perhaps Braithwaite’s best-loved book, it is also a vivid evocation of the Dust Bowl desolation wrought by the “Dirty Thirties” on the Saskatchewan Prairies, the ordeal of youth among a people bereft of pity and charity, and the human compassion that adds warmth and poignancy to an unforgettable story.

Drawing on his fifty years as an award-winning journalist and author of some of the finest books on Canadian history, Pierre Berton has written a witty and practical guide for writers. With almost every book a bestseller, clearly this writer knows what it takes to succeed in the publishing world. From the all-important rule of “knowing your audience” and other essential writing tips to down-to-earth advice on dealing with agents, publishers, and editors, The Joy of Writing covers every aspect of non-fiction writing and includes interviews with twenty-seven of Canada’s leading writers. Illustrated with more than thirty manuscript pages from Pierre Berton’s own works. Includes Interviews With: Alex Barris • Ted Barris • Jack Batten • Fred Bodsworth • June Callwood • Stevie Cameron • Robert Collins • Elaine Dewar • Will Ferguson • Trent Frayne • Bob Fulford • Charlotte Gray • Richard Gwyn • Stephen Kimber • Ken McGoogan • Roy McGregor • Linda McQuaig • Farley Mowat • Knowlton Nash • Peter Newman • Stephanie Nolen • John Sawatsky • Russell Smith • Edna Staebler • Walter Stewart • Betty Jane Wylie • Jan Wong