Courtesy of the Cariboo Regional District:
1) Author Keith Billington will be at the Cariboo Regional District’s Williams Lake Branch on Wednesday, Nov. 27 at 6:30 p.m. to present his new book, The Last Patrol: Following the Trail of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police’s Legendary Lost Patrol.
In 1970, Billington, along with ten other men, embarked on the nearly 800 kilometre trip by dog team, from Fort MacPherson to Dawson City. This was a commemorative journey of the famous “lost patrol”— in 1910, a crew of Royal Northwest Mounted Police attempted the same trip, but with a much more tragic outcome.
A registered nurse from England, Billington immigrated to Canada and worked in the Canadian Arctic for six years with his wife, Muriel, who is a nurse-midwife. He obtained his Public Health Nurse Diploma from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Since retiring, Keith and his wife continue to travel in winter by snowmobile and skis, and in the summertime they find adventure in their double sea-going kayak.
His previous books include House Calls by Dogsled (Harbour Publishing, 2008) and Cold Land, Warm Hearts (Harbour Publishing, 2010).
This free event will include a slideshow and books will be available for purchase and signing.
Further information is available online at cln.bc.ca or by calling the library at 250-392-3630.
2) Author Julie Fowler will be at the Williams Lake Branch on Friday, Nov. 29 at 1 p.m. to launch her new book The Grande Dames of the Cariboo: Discovering Vivien Cowan and Sonia Cornwall and their Intriguing friendship with A.V. Jackson and Joseph Plaskett.
Fowler began a quest to find out more about an artist from the Cariboo named Sonia Cornwall (1919–2006). Through interviews, letters, original artworks, articles, exhibition catalogues, imaginings of conversations and occurrences, along with her own reflections on the experience, she pieced together a story of pioneering, love and the pursuit of art. But in searching for Cornwall, she found an unanticipated new friend in Sonia’s mother, Vivien Cowan (1893–1990).
In 1945, Vivien Cowan spearheaded the Cariboo Art Society with noted Canadian Group of Seven painter A.Y. Jackson. She had met Jackson earlier that year at the Banff School, as well as another Canadian artist of note, Joseph Plaskett.
Both painters, along with many others, would visit Vivien and her daughters, Sonia and Dru, at their property near 150 Mile House, the Onward Ranch. Vivien became the Grande Dame of the Cariboo, hosting some of Canada’s greatest talent and at the same time promoting the work of local artists and creators.
In this genre-bending work, Fowler expertly and creatively weaves her search for an understanding of her own passion for art and her love of the Cariboo with a mesmerising story of creative life in one of BC’s earliest pioneer communities.
This free event will include a slideshow and books will be available for purchase and signing. Further information is available online at cln.bc.ca or by calling the library at 250-392-3630.
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