Happy Canada Day

Featured Book

Becoming Vancouver

A History

"Becoming Vancouver" tells the story of the city from its earliest Indigenous inhabitants down to the present day.

Santa Claus (aka Canada Post) brought a wonderful Christmas present to my door this morning: a copy of Arvik! In Pursuit of the Bowhead Whale, hot off the presses. Arvik! is a new book from the Avataq Cultural Institute, a Montreal-based...

My Bookselling Career

August 26, 2013

On the west side of Granville Street in downtown Vancouver, near the corner of Smythe next door to the McDonald’s, there is a storefront which for many years has been occupied by a camera shop. In the 1960s, however, it was home to The Book Barrel, the...

My Newest Purchase

October 25, 2013

This is the only purchase I made during my recent trip to Europe. I bought it in Old Town Prague at the official Spartak outlet store which happens to be located on Husova Street directly beneath the hanging sculpture of Sigmund Freud. The...

Happy Canada Day

June 30, 2024

Happy Birthday Harbour

June 29, 2024

Harbour Publishing, for whom I have produced several books over the years, including the Encyclopedia of British Columbia (above), is feted in today's Vancouver Sun. Harbour turns fifty this year and its founders', Howie and Mary White,...

Lunch at the Vancouver Club

April 10, 2024

This past weekend the Vancouver Historical Society held its annual luncheon to commemorate the incorporation of the city in 1886. This year's lunch was at the Vancouver Club in the ballroom of its gorgeous 1914 "clubhouse" downtown on Hastings Street...

Daniel Francis

Reading the National Narrative

Happy Canada Day

Becoming Vancouver

A History

Resuming an Ancient Hunt

My Bookselling Career

My Newest Purchase

Happy Canada Day

Happy Birthday Harbour

Lunch at the Vancouver Club