NNELS Upgrade

In 1934, fifty-three-year-old beer tycoon John Sackville Labatt was kidnapped from his Lake Huron summer home and held ransom for three days. His captors, a group of ex-rumrunners, desperate in the days following prohibition and the Great Depression, were hoping for a big payday. This bizarre true crime story traces the abduction through to the trials of the abductors. From a heavily populated hideout to a case of mistaken identity, follow the story of Labatt, the first person in Canada to be kidnapped for high ransom.

Show No Fear is a collection of essays that captures the richness of Canadian military history. Although Canadians see their nation as a peaceable kingdom and themselves as an unmilitary people, the truth is that Canada has a proud military heritage. Moreover, the nations citizens and their descendants share a legacy of courage, tenacity, and warfighting prowess. This volume of daring actions showcases the country’s rich and distinct national military experience while capturing the indomitable spirit of the Canadian soldier.

The stories of many POW escapees are well known, but what about those who miraculously evaded capture in the first place and returned to fight another day? This compelling book tells some of the epic stories of the thousands of shot-down airmen, including Canadians from across the country, who got out from behind enemy lines in Europe, the Far East, and Africa during the Second World War. Based on special first-hand interviews and new research into official debriefing documents held at Britain's National Archives, many of these accounts have never been published before.

In the 450 years since Jacques Cartier’s arrival, Prince Edward Island’s history has been tied to the sea and to ships. From the first explorers through immigrants, traders, sailors, and fishermen, thousands of seafaring people and their ships have come and gone – many lost to the relentless sea. Julie Watson has dug through the archives and unearthed harrowing accounts, from the expulsion of the Acadians to the amazing 1836 adventure of Tommy Tuplin, age six, who was washed overboard in a storm then washed back into the ship’s rigging.

Short-listed for the 2002 Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research In the seventy years since 1931, various organizations large and small, including several semi-private ones, have issued or re-issued various original 78 rpm recordings from original metal plates. No comprehensive listing of these has ever before appeared; this is the first, and gathers together all the various information of ongoing interest. This is a most important addition to the record-collecting bibliography.

One of only fifty infantry battalions to see action with the Canadian Expeditionary Force during World War I, the 58th nevertheless had no official history. Second to None tells the story of this important, yet forgotten, battalion. The soldiers who formed the 58th exemplified the ideal citizen soldiers and later evolved into the tough, battle-savvy veterans who destroyed the cream of the German Imperial Army and won battle honours.

Short-listedfor the 2005 Ottawa Book Award for Non-fiction Soldier, sailor, adventurer, and philosopher, Louis-Antoine de Bougainville was a talented French officer whose remarkable career took him from the boudoirs of Paris to the flintlock battlefields of North America and on to the luch islands of the South Pacific. In this lively biography, author Victor Suthren follows Bougainville’s career in North America during the Seven Years War and the American Revolution and his adventures in the South Seas.

The conveyance of royalty, whether to Balmoral or Buffalo, by Rolls Royce or Canadian Pacific train, has its own mysterious traditions and protocols. With dry humour and a keen sense of history, Peter Pigott describes how the British royal family has adapted to technological innovations. Organized thematically, the book is packed with well-researched details. We know all about the royal family’s lives, especially their romances and scandals, but do we know who was the first monarch to drive a motorcar? The first to fly in an aircraft?

A beautiful and nostalgic look at the royal tour that captured a generation — the first visit of a reigning monarch to Canada. This six week visit from the Atlantic to the Pacific and back again (with a short excursion to the United States) enthralled a young nation. Fifty years ago, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth arrived at Quebec City to tour "the senior daughter of the dominions". This is a fond recollection of those few magic weeks and the outpouring of affection for the new king and his beautiful wife.

These observations and quotations comprise a witty anthology of anecdotes by and about the royal family in Canada over the last 400 years. Enhanced by drawings from the well-known cartoonist Vince Wicks, this book looks at the memorable encounters, sometimes touching, sometimes disconcerting, sometimes hilarious, that Canadians have had with their own and other royal families. Arranged thematically Royal Observations covers such topics as Queen Victoria, English/French relations, World War Two, native peoples and royal tours.