Mark Bourrie

This is the story of George McCullagh who was one of Canada's most influential media moguls. And I'd never heard of him. He bought The Globe and The Mail and Empire and merged them into the Globe and Mail when he was 31 years old. A high school dropout, had already made millions on the stock market. It was just the beginning of the meteoric rise of a man widely expected to one day be prime minister of Canada. But the charismatic McCullagh had a dark side. Dogged by the bipolar disorder that destroyed his political ambitions and eventually killed him, he was all but written out of history

Mark Bourrie has given us an well written book that makes Canadian history come alive. The writing put me right in the time and place of the story. I learned a lot about Canada that I had been unaware of: fascist sensibilities, CBC as both regulator and broadcaster, Ontario politics, and that a Canadian is credited with shooting down the Red Baron. In today's multi-media/social media world, it is astonishing to reflect on the power of a newspaper editor.

The promotion for the book highlights Mr. McCullagh's mental health issues, but these are not really explored in any depth. There is a lot about what Mr. McCullagh did and who he knew; it took a long time to get to who he was as a person. I would have liked more about his personal life, but maybe there was no information for Mr. Bourrie to draw on.… (altro)

What a fascinating life Pierre-Esprit Radisson had....most of which we never learned in school. In addition to being a fur trader and voyageur, I now know that he was adopted by Mohawks (whom he later turned against), captured by pirates, lived on the fringes of both the English and French courts and successfully (mostly) sued the Hudson's Bay Company. Wow.

While I loved the subject, I was less impressed with the presentation. There were several errors that even I, with only high school history, was able to pick out. In the second half of the book, it was hard to keep track of where Mr. Radisson was. And I found the writing style didn't match the writing of an historical biography at times; at other times, I felt I was reading a topic assigned to the author -- it lacked a keen sense of interest or passion for the subject.… (altro)

Pierre Esprit Radisson is a little known Canadian fur trader/explorer, not because history teachers choose to ignore him but there’s so little personal information about him. Mark Bourrie’s book has put an end to this by clarifying and expanding on Radisson’s life. His was a life of high adventure, intercontinental travel, battle, near death experiences, duplicitous behaviour, treason, companionship with kings, clergy, commoners, and First Nations. His help in creating the Hudson’s Bay Company was ignored and unrewarded with penury and obscurity his ultimate reward.… (altro)