Winter 2008 Volume 22
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
COMMUNITY AUTHOR #9,000 obody’s counting—except a computer at Simon Fraser University Library—but David Stanley is the 9,000th B.C. author to be added to our encyclopedic, ever- expanding, massive on-line Author Bank for B.C. literature—replete with photos, re- “DAVID views and essays—at www.abcbookworld.com. We’d never heard of NDavid Stanley either, but hey, isn’t that somehow the point? STANLEY, WE Turns out David Stanley once pur- David Stanley has visited more than chased the longest plane ticket ever is- 195 countries and territories. PRESUME.” sued in Canada by Pan American “Each year I try to get to a few Airways back in 1978. He arranged to more countries on my to-do list,” he make over 50 stops between Los Ange- says. “I stay at inexpensive hotels, the les and Singapore. kind I recommend in my guide- Now with nine books to his credit, books. Mostly I prefer to travel in- Stanley has recorded the development cognito, and rough, using public of tourism in the South Pacific over the transport as much as possible.” past quarter-century. Stanley’s “under the radar” approach David Stanley of Nanaimo, seen here on Aitutaki in the Cook Islands, has “In the early days there was only one backfired on him during the papal visit visited more than 195 countries and territories as a travel writer. large resort on Bora Bora,” he recalls, of John Paul II to the Solomon Is- “and it was fine to camp free, for as long lands in 1984. plained that I’d been at the Presbyterian able for free on-line. as you liked, on the beach in the center “All news media had been banned by Rest House chatting with the pastor dur- “What Internet users don’t seem to of Vaitape. the government,” he says, “but one re- ing the Pope’s entire six-hour visit, and realize, however, is that the bulk of travel “Do that today and you’ll be visited porter from New Caledonia did man- my story checked out, they decided I websites are either paid advertising by by the gendarmes within 10 or 15 min- age to slip through and file a story from wasn’t an undercover reporter after all.” businesses or hobby websites run by in- utes.” Noumea. This provoked outrage among Born in Toronto in 1944, Stanley has dividuals. The discipline of a professional Stanley’s first travel book, in 1979, officials in Honiara, so when I tried to lived in B.C. since 2003. He’s now semi- book editor is almost always lacking. I became the second title in the Moon board my flight to Fiji the next day, I retired. haven’t seen a website yet that tells the Handbooks series, after Bill Dalton’s was taken aside for questioning. “Over the past decade,” he says, whole story the way a good travel guide- own Indonesia Handbook. Today, Moon’s “In the end, I was taken to see the “book sales have declined steadily, partly book should.” successor company, Avalon Travel Pub- Minister of Immigration at his villa in due to competition from other guides Visit www.abcbookworld.com for a lishing, has well over 100 titles and the hills above Honiara. When I ex- but more because so much is now avail- complete list of David Stanley’s titles. www.abcbookworld.com FAST & FREE WITH THE TRUTH ore than 1,000 visitors per day technical staff at SFU Library, most no- are enjoying free access to tably Todd Holbrook and Siavash Mour mountain of electronic in- Miri. formation about more than 9,000 B.C. Thank you to Simon Fraser Univer- authors at www.abcbookworld.com sity for ‘hosting’ this edifice of original ma- Our homegrown literature has al- terial. ways been under-recognized, so we SFU is one of several integral “in- have provided this service—without kind” partners who make our two-man funding and without pay- operation viable. We also ap- ment—as an electronic sister preciate our partnerships with publication to this newspaper Newsgroup, Vancouver Pub- for five years. lic Library, George Ryga Cen- We could not have done tre, the Federation of BC ILLUSTRATION so without the invaluable part- Writers and the BC English FARRIS “What’s that?” nership of SFU Librarian Teachers Association. JOSEPH Lynn Copeland and her SFU’s Lynn Copeland —David Lester & Alan Twigg Publication Mail Agreement #40010086 Contributors: Grant Shilling, Mark Forsythe, Joan Givner, WINTER Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: BC BookWorld, Louise Donnelly, Hannah Main-van der Kamp, 2008-2009 3516 W. 13th Ave., Vancouver, BC V6R 2S3 Heather Ramsay, Cherie Thiessen, Shane McCune. Writing not otherwise credited is by staff. Produced with the sponsorship of Pacific BookWorld News We acknowledge Photographers: Barry Peterson, Laura Sawchuk. the assistance of BC Issue, Society. Publications Mail Registration No. 7800. BOOKWORLD Proofreaders: Wendy Atkinson, Betty Twigg. Canada Council and the Vol. 22, No. 4 BC BookWorld ISSN: 1701-5405 Design: Get-to-the-Point Graphics. Deliveries: Ken Reid Province of British Columbia, through the Publisher/ Writer: Alan Twigg Advertising & editorial: BC BookWorld, 3516 W. 13th Ave., Ministry of Community, Vancouver, B.C., V6R 2S3. Tel/Fax: 604-736-4011 • Email: All BC BookWorld reviews are posted online at Aboriginal, and Editor/Production: David Lester available on request. Annual subscription: $19.08 www.abcbookworld.com Women’s Services. 4 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2008-09 COVER STORY ost oar-powered crossings connect the Canary and MCaribbean Islands (5,000 kilometres). Six people have died trying; dozens have needed deep-sea rescue. “The number of successful ocean cross- ings is low,” writes Julie Angus, in her memoir, Rowboat in a Hurricane: My Amazing Journey Across a Changing Atlantic Ocean (Greystone $22), “espe- cially when compared to other extreme endeavours such as climbing Mount Ev- erest and skiing to the South Pole.” Julie Angus’ compelling story of her 145-day oar-powered journey from Lis- bon to Costa Rica shows she can nar- rate as well as she can navigate. While risking her life making a trans- Atlantic crossing with her partner Colin Angus—who was completing a round- the-world expedition using human power only—she vividly describes being hit by two hurricanes and two cyclones, encircled by a great white shark, bat- tered by a huge amorous turtle and al- most demolished by a wooden fishing boat at full cruising speed. Their slow-moving rowboat also nar- rowly avoided a collision with a twenty- eight-thousand tonne tanker. Only the rowboat’s lightness saved it by causing the bow wave of the tanker to toss it aside. There are wonderful moments as well as terrors—such as an unexpected solar eclipse, the appearance of exotic birds, whales, porpoises, dorado and pi- MORE OAR MORE OARlot fish which survive by following larger SINCE TWO NORWEGIANS ROWED fish and living on their leftover scraps. A group of four pilot fish that attach them- selves to the boat become cherished pets across the Atlantic in 1896, more and are given names—Ted, Fred, Ned and Oscar. Ted and Fred swim 6,000 kilometers beside the boat, accompany- than 200 people have used oar- ing them all the way to Costa Rica. Angus’ adventure started with an power to claim the same feat, but internet search for a boat designed for rowing on oceans. The search turned up a seven-meter-long boat, weighing 350 none prior to Julie Angus kilograms empty and 800 kilograms when fully loaded. She flew to the north and partner of Scotland to inspect it and arranged Colin Angus for its delivery to Lisbon, the point of departure. rowed from one continental The boat had two tiny cabins—a for- ward one to serve as a cupboard and an aft one, as big as a small closet, for living mainland to the other—a dis- quarters. Between the two cabins was an open deck with sliding rowing seats po- tance of 10,000 kilometres. sitioned in tandem. Sealed compart- ments below deck held supplies. As for a bathroom, “I soon learned that the best way... was to hang my der- riere over the side while sitting on the outer rail. The life-lines made a secure backrest and it was much more relaxing than the bucket.” In rough weather a six-meter rope with one end secured to the boat acted as an umbilical cord in case one was washed overboard. 6 BC BOOKWORLD WINTER 2008-09 Along the way, the reader learns For all the drama and the rich tex- about the toxicity of salt in large quanti- tural detail, this voyage had a serious ties: twelve grams are enough to kill a purpose. human being, and a single teaspoon of With bachelor’s degrees in psychol- seawater contains enough salt for the ogy and biology, and a master’s degree whole day. Their desalination unit (the in molecular biology, Julie Angus hoped size of a sewing machine) had a heavy- to get a more intimate sense of the life duty pump that forced salt water past a and dynamism of the Atlantic, and to semi-permeable membrane at high pres- see for herself the environmental dam- sure. This produced drinkable water age documented by others. with 97% of the salt and minerals ex- Rowboat in a Hurricane therefore tracted. In two hours the unit could yield describes with dismay and alarm the ten litres of clear water. amount of trash floating in the water, The continual spray of sea salt made most of it plastic.