Summer In Muskoka

It's the Age of Elegance in the summer playground of the affluent and powerful. Amid the pristine, island-dotted lakes and pine-scented forests of the Canadian wilderness, the young and carefree amuse themselves with glittering balls and friendly competitions. The summer of 1914 promises to be different when the ambitious and destitute son of a disowned heir joins his wealthy family at their cottage on Wyndwood Island. Through Jack's introduction into the privileged life of the aristocratic Wyndhams and their social circle, he seeks opportunities and alliances to better himself, including in his schemes, his beautiful and audacious cousin, Victoria. But their charmed lives begin to unravel with the onset of the Great War, in which many are destined to become part of the "lost generation." This richly textured tale takes the reader on an unforgettable journey from romantic moonlight cruises to the horrific sinking of the Lusitania, from regattas on the water to combat in the skies over France, from extravagant mansions to deadly trenches - from innocence to nationhood. The Summer Before The Storm, the first of the epic "Muskoka Novels," evokes a gracious, bygone era that still resonates in this legendary land of lakes.

Elgin House, Lake Joseph Past and Present is a history of an important and successful summer resort in the Muskoka Region of Ontario from 1885 to the present. It details the efforts of four generations of the Love family to create a world class summer resort from modest beginnings.The resort was unique in that it catered to the many well to do Canadians and Americans with strong religious beliefs including several of North America's founding families. The book revolves around a series of Love family stories and is set in the context of developments in Canadian history throughout the twentieth century. The book contains 58 images of the resort through it's history including a number by the Muskoka photography legend Frank Mickelthwaite. It concludes with a description of the present day use of this property in the form of the luxurious Lake Joseph Club, a Thomas McBroom designed championship golf course, villas and lake front dining facility.

A Memoir of the Potts Family Cottage 1961 1998 Summer in Muskoka describes the maturing of a family's response to the rugged wilderness of Muskoka, a summer vacationland just north of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, as they summer there over a period of thirty years. It also describes the evolution of Muskoka from a cottage semiwilderness to a high-class resort. Finally, the book explores this family's growing relationships with each other as they cope with the isolation of this most beautiful of Canadian summer vacationlands. John and Madeleine Potts married in 1939 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. John Michael

Thread by thread, the fabric of privilege and complacency enveloping the Wyndham family began to unravel. Now, in the compelling sequel to the acclaimed epic, "The Summer Before The Storm, " Ria and her friends find themselves at the mercy of forces beyond their control in late summer, 1916.

Tucked into the rugged Canadian wilderness of Muskoka's majestic lake country, Merilee Sutcliffe's peaceful town seems worlds away from the escalating conflict in Europe. But life is about to change dramatically in the Summer of 1940. As her patriotic friends and relatives leave for battle, her small town is thrust into the war machine. Merilee's formerly tranquil skies soon roar with aircraft from the Royal Norwegian Air Force, stationed nearby to train young men determined to liberate their country from Nazi occupation. When German Prisoners of War march into her shocked community, they become Merilee's closest neighbours - and biggest threat. What unfolds in her remote town and on foreign shores sets Merilee and her growing circle on a collision course with an unimagined destiny. Caught up in the chaos is Luftwaffe pilot Erich Leitner. Shot down during the Battle of Britain and transplanted to a lakeside prison in Muskoka, he discovers he has more to fear from his comrades than his captors. While her cousin-in-spirit, Elyse Thornton, navigates the treacherous skies of Britain as a Spitfire Girl, audaciously ferrying warplanes from factories to airfields, Merilee becomes quietly entangled in her own dangerous liaisons on the home front. Caught between worlds, with conflicted loyalties and a sense of duty, she joins the Royal Canadian Air Force, Women's Division, and soon finds herself in ground-zero London, focusing her photographer's lens on a city under bombardment. Far from carefree summers on the lake, struggling to survive the relentless demands and sacrifices of war, Merilee, Elyse, and their friends wonder if they dare to risk their hearts as well. As unlikely lives intersect, ideologies and social hierarchies are challenged, loves and friendships are forged or broken, and countless heroes are made and lost. But even those who return to the serenity of Muskoka are changed forever.

Ontario's cottage country is famous for its blue lakes and rocky shores, and this wonderful coffee table book captures the spirit of cottage country like no other book before it. John de Visser's award-winning photographs combine with Judy Ross's homespun text to paint an unforgettable picture of contemporary Muskoka.