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The Midnight Hour is amazing, amusing, and frightening. It will make you pause to wonder - about ghosts and spirits, fate and destiny, strange beasts and even stranger human beings. The accounts within describe encounters in Canada with monsters and mysteries from 1784 to the present. Editor and anthologist John Robert Colombo derived these true tales from nineteenth-century newspapers, personal correspondence, e-mails, interviews, and more. The collection is certain to entertain you ... especially during "the midnight hour"!

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Short-listed for the 2003 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction

A world exists on the nighttime streets that the average person cannot envision. Taxi driver Peter McSherry recounts tales of his thirty years of experience driving cabs at night on the hard-bitten streets of Canadas largest city. Drunks, punks, con artists, hookers, pimps, drug addicts, drug pushers, thugs, nymphomaniacs, snakes, politicians, celebrities . . . hes experienced them all. McSherry serves up his stories with forthrightness, humour, and the occasional dash of cynicism. In this well-written and street-smart book, the author tells the rest of us about a world we can only imagine - if we dare.

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Me n Len is a warm and humourously nostalgic look back at life in the backwoods of Ontario in the "good old days." The setting is the rural area of eastern Haliburton, Ontario, in the decades before the chainsaw and the outboard motor became the common sounds in this beautiful region of central Canada.

The main character is a grizzled and lovable 82-year-old trapper and woodsman named Len who takes the reader through the adventures in his memory to meet the people of his past. The stories he tells and the way he tells them are often funny, sometimes poignant, but always filled with an unforgettable down-to-earth philosophy.

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Margaret Laurence: The Making of a Writer is an engaging narrative that contains new and important findings about Laurences life and career. This biography reveals the challenges, successes, and failures of the long apprenticeship that preceded the publication of the The Stone Angel, Laurences first commercially successful novel.

Donez Xiques demonstrates the importance of Margaret Laurences early work as a journalist in her development as a writer and covers her return to Canada from Africa in the late 1950s. She details the significance of Laurences "Vancouver years" as well as the challenges of her year in London prior to settling at Elm Cottage in Buckinghamshire, when Laurence stood on the verge of success.

The Margaret Laurence known to most people is a public figure of the 1960s and 1970s; matriarchal, matronly, and accomplished. The story of her early years in the harsh setting of the Canadian Prairies during the 1930s - years of drought and the Great Depression - and of her African years has never before been chronicled with the thoroughness and vividness that Xiques provides for the reader.

Appended to this powerful new biography is a short story by Margaret Laurence that has never before been published and two other stories that have not been widely available. They indicate the range of her concerns and show a marked departure from her fiction in The Tomorrow-Tamer and Other Stories and A Bird in the House.

Readers will benefit from the extensive research in this full and vibrant portrait of one of the most revered writers of twentieth-century Canadian literature.

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During the Great Depression, promoter, salesman, and pilot Richard Thorne McCully became an aviation pioneer, capturing much of the Maritime region from the air. Along with photographer Harold Reid and pilot Marty Fraser, McCully spent the early 1930s flying over Atlantic Canada. The photographs they took offer a rare glimpse into prominent homes, vibrant businesses, churches, farms and waterfronts that are no longer standing or have been significantly altered. Each photo has been annotated with the natural features, architecture, streetscapes, industries, sporting events and other pastimes, and colourful characters depicted.

These unique birds-eye views from 1931 to 1939 capture the feeling of that first day in May 1931 when McCullys small twin-engine took off from the tiny Moncton airport.

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The Personal Story of Dr. Charles Best, the Co-Discoverer of Insulin

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Although Charles Best is known for discovering insulin, the story of his life neither begins nor ends with that one moment. Not only did he make many other discoveries, he was also one half of an extraordinary couple who, during their almost sixty years together, were involved in many of the significant events of the twentieth century. Margaret & Charley is the story of these two people from their beginnings on the east coast at the turn of the century through the years that followed. Through diaries, scrapbooks, photograph albums, and other documentation, the details of their lives are shared with the reader.

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The Influential, the Eccentric and the Sublime

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Few people can resist the appeal of old maps and plans. Even in these days of disposable mapping - from satellite navigation to customized road directions at the click of a mouse - the historical map continues to present a unique perspective on our changing world. Here we explore 25 glorious examples. The emphasis is on the story behind the map: what it reveals about its creator and users, from the first explorers to the railway builders. This thought-provoking collection features maps that chart societies as well as land, sea, and skies; maps that have influenced and inspired; and perhaps most revealing of all, maps that misrepresent.

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Maps for Family and Local History (2nd Edition)

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The Records of the Tithe, Valuation Office and National Farm Surveys, Second Edition

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Maps for Family and Local History shows how three great land surveys can provide information on ancestral homes, as well as fascinating historical snapshots of specific areas. Covering 1836 to 1943, the Tithe, Valuation Office, and National Farm Surveys provide a wealth of information on rural and urban localities, on dwellings, settlements, and landscapes as well as the status of householders. The text gives the rationale behind the surveys and covers each in detail. Fully updated by map experts from The National Archives, this illustrated guide is the perfect companion to researching those maps.

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Rose Mitchell, Geraldine Beech, William Foot

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A History of St. John Ambulance and the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in Canada

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As a foundation of the Order of St. John, St. John Ambulance has been providing first aid training programs in Canada for the past 125 years. From the sweatshops of the Victorian era and military hospitals of the First World War to a modern-day volunteer organization devoted to the service of humanity, this history recounts the remarkable story of the Orders contribution to our country and those who made it possible.

With connections to the hospitaller work of the Order of St. John in the tenth and eleventh centuries, the Order of St. John finds its modern roots in the English revival of this charitable work in 1831. The 1883 establishment of the Order of St. John in Canada signalled the beginning of a long and distinguished history of service to Canadians and people around the globe. As a nationwide volunteer organization involving more than 25,000 Canadians, St. John Ambulance continues to be the principal provider of first aid training in Canada.

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The First World War Exploits of Billy Bishop, VC

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Its a war story that is told every time the career of Billy Bishop is discussed: On June 2, 1917, the young pilot single-handedly took out a German airfield in an early morning raid at the height of the Great War. For this, he was awarded the Victoria Cross, and a place in Canadian history.

And yet, the attack never happened.

In this explosive new biography, Brereton Greehous exposes the myth of Billy Bishop. While his bravery never comes into question (Bishop was as courageous as any of the men who risked their lives in those early warplanes) his credibility as a storyteller does. From exaggerations and half-truths to flat-out lies, stories of Bishops legendary exploits contain as much fiction as they do fact.

Greenhous reveals many startling truths: he presents evidence that some of the medals Bishop wore late in his career were unearned, uncovers a number of examples of Bishop embellishing or inventing combat stories, and, most significantly, shows that the only account of the aces raid on the German airfield came from Bishop himself. Even official German records of casualties fail to corroborate the Canadians claims.

The Making of Billy Bishop is a book certain to stir up controversy. Twenty years ago, a documentary film questioning Bishops credentials as a hero was considered so blasphemous that a senate investigation was launched in an attempt to restore the pilots name. Now, Greenhouss research vindicates the claims of the filmmakers, and re-ignites an argument once thought settled.

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On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of Queen Elizabeths accession to the throne, the Centre of Canadian Studies of the University of Edinburgh hosted its annual conference on the theme "Majesty in Canada". The essays that were presented at that conference reflect the wide-ranging recognitions of the different roles that monarchs and their representatives have played in Canada.

The essays examine how Canadians have understood their ties to royalty and how the regal principle formed an important part of the national identity. Royal tours, vice-regal initiatives, representations of the sovereigns power, and Canadian appeals to monarchical sentiments comprise the themes of these engaging essays, providing an up-to-date look at the historical and current personal influence of the Crown in Canada.

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In addition to his activities as conductor, administrator, educator, composer, and organist, Sir Ernest MacMillan (1893-1973) found time to write more than one hundred essays and lectures on music. Always ready to use his enormous prestige to further the causes of music, MacMillan took every opportunity to admonish Canadians to develop our own composers, to honour our own performers, to educate our children musically, and to offer opportunities for all to hear, learn about, and enjoy great music.

This selection of twenty essays and lectures covers the period from 1928 to 1964, and ranges over the gamut of MacMillans life and interests: the cause of the Canadian composer; music education for adults as well as children; critical reviews; his early years as an organist; internment in a German prison camp during the First World War; Shakespeare and music; church music; and the lighter side in two humorous send-ups of academic lectures on Bach and Wagner. Here is a panorama of music over thirty-five years at mid-century, through the eyes of one of Canadas most brilliant and all-embracing musicians.

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Remembering the Past, Embracing the Future

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Macdonald Institute traces the evolution of a small post-secondary institution specializing in the education of rural Ontario women into a world-respected, co-educational college at the University of Guelph. Built in 1903 with funds from Sir William Macdonald of Montreal, Macdonald Institute focused originally on the teaching of Domestic Science to rural women. "Mac" has evolved to meet the changing needs of women, the Canadian family and society in general. The Institute evolved into the College of Family and Consumer Studies in 1970 and its legacy is now an integral part of the College of Social and Applied Human Sciences. This book provides valuable insights into the education of women in Ontario in the twentieth century.

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Une perspective canadienne sur les Forces d'operations speciales

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Les Forces doperations speciales (SOF) nont jamais fait partie integrante des capacites militaires du Canada. Des unites speciales ont certes existe a certaines periodes de notre histoire, mais elles ont toujours oeuvre dans lombre, a la limite de la reconnaissance. Elles ont presque toujours ete marginalisees. Cependant, la tragique attaque lancee par des terroristes sur les tours jumelles du World Trade Center a New York, le 11 septembre 2001, a considerablement modifie leur image. Les SOF sont devenues depuis des forces de premier plan. Les essais qui forment cet ouvrage concernant les SOF ont ete rediges par des experts en la matiere. Pris collectivement, ils constituent un recueil exhaustif dinformations et de connaissances sur les SOF canadiennes et sur des questions et sujets qui sy rapportent. En somme, louvrage permet au lecteur dacquerir une solide base sur la theorie, le contexte historique et levolution des SOF, y compris les evenements qui favorisent leur expansion.

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David Barr, Tony Balasevicius, Colonel Bernd Horn

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The Empress of Irelands last voyage ended on May 29, 1914, when she was rammed by a Norwegian coal-carrier in a fog patch on the St. Lawrence River near Rimouski. For David Creighton, her voyage still continues.

In Losing the Empress, Creighton delves into the lives of his grandparents - Salvation Army officers who were lost on the Empress - and the lives of their five orphaned children who would soon be plunged into World War I. His discoveries reveal amazing details about the Empress, which sank in fourteen minutes with a greater loss of life than the Titanic disaster.

Shipwreck nostalgia, last voyage dinners, Salvationists, the British Empire and the world wars fought to preserve it; everything comes into focus when the author joins Titanic discoverer Robert Ballard on a film shoot at the sunken liners site. Losing the Empress lyrically traces a personal journey into the past and into the future.

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Canadian composer Louis Applebaum devoted his life to the cultural awakening of his native land, and this "magnificent obsession" drove him to become a founder of the Canadian League of Composers and the Canadian Music Centre. He was an instrumental figure in the early development of the National Film Board, the Stratford Festival, and the National Art Centre in Ottawa. For nearly half a century he composed music for the Stratford Festival, television, radio, and films. This illustrated biography explores the man who was beloved by his fellow artists and the icon to whom every Canadian, knowingly or not, is indebted.

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Donald Smith, known to most Canadians as Lord Strathcona, was an adventurer who made his fortune building railroads. He joined the Hudsons Bay Company at age eighteen and went on to build the first railway to open the Canadian Northwest to settlement. As his crowning achievement, he drove the last spike for the nation-building Canadian Pacific Railway.

In 1896, Smith became Canadas High Commissioner in London and was soon elevated to the peerage. He became a generous benefactor to Canadian institutions. This eminently readable biography brings to light new information, including details about Strathconas personal life and his scandalous marriage.

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Commended for the 2009 Best Books for Kids & Teens, long-listed for the 2009 CLA Book of the Year for Children Award

Twelve-year-old Lewis Castorman is a master locksmith: there is no lock on earth that he is unable to open. He is therefore flattered when world-renowned chemist Ernst K. Grumpel invites him to his office in New York City and offers him a lock-picking assignment. His confidence quickly turns to dismay, however, when he learns this job will take him to Yellow Swamp in northern Alberta, the scene of a disastrous chemical spill a year earlier. He is also horrified to discover that Grumpel is utterly ruthless and, through his chemical inventions, can alter the rules of nature at his will. But the assignment is one that Lewis cant refuse.

How is Grumpel able to create such miraculous transformations? What secrets has he locked away and why has he taken pains to store them in Alberta? Despite the strange discoveries Lewis will make at every turn in his adventures, nothing will prepare him for the final encounter that awaits him in Yellow Swamp.

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Practical and Emotional Support Strategies

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diagnosis of diabetes marks a dramatic change, not only in the life of the diabetic, but also in the lives of his or her family, friends, and co-workers. Diabetes affects your work, your leisure, and your relationships with family and friends. But thanks to improving treatment, people with diabetes can expect to live active and independent lives, as long as they make a lifelong commitment to careful diabetes management.

Diabetes: A Family Affair is designed to help readers understand and manage the day-to-day challenges of living with the disease, through the stories of others. It is not a book of medical advice; rather, it is a resource of sharing between diabetics and those who care about them.

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The Little Immigrants is a tale of compassion and courage and a vivid account of a deep and moving part of Canadian heritage. In the early years after Confederation, the rising nation needed workers that could take advantage of the abundant resources. Until the time of the Depression, 100,000 impoverished children from the British Isles were sent overseas by well-meaning philanthropists to solve the colonys farm-labour shortage.

They were known as the "home children," and they were lonely and frightened youngsters to whom a new life in Canada meant only hardship and abuse. This is an extraordinary but almost forgotten odyssey that the Calgary Herald has called, "One of the finest pieces of Canadian social history ever to be written." Kenneth Bagnell tells "an affecting tale of Dickensian pathos" (Vancouver Sun) that is "excellent ... well organized, logical, clearly written, [and] suspenseful" (The Edmonton Journal).