My Country: The Remarkable Past

A fascinating collection of true tales from Canadian history. Pierre Berton brings the past alive with stories of hardship and romance, mystery and magic, tragedy and high heroism: Charles Blondin tripping across Niagara’s gorge on a tightrope; Ned Hanlan rowing his way into history; and the phantom Indian, Gun-an-noot, eluding his pursuers for thirteen years. The past comes to life again in Berton’s prose, as the reader disappears with Sir John Franklin and his men into the popular mists, and takes to the air with Billy Bishop, the greatest Canadian air ace of the First World War. Berton does not hesitate to explore the dark corners of Canadian history, such as the genocide of the Beothuk in Newfoundland. Here, too, are more contemporary stories: the great Cross-Canada hike of 1921; the Vancouver Post Office sit-in of 1938; and the strange safari of mystery man Charles Bedaux into the wilds of British Columbia in 1934. My Country has something for everyone.