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Favourite Sea Stories from Seaside Al
Favourite Sea Stories from Fireside Al
322 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 31, 2024
Favourite Sea Stories from Seaside Al
Alan Maitland
Toughed it out on CBC for 46 years. He retired to Mahone Bay near salt water in 1993 but died in Vancouver in 1999 and is buried in Port Hope, ON. Truly his Front Porch was all of Canada.
The book is a compilation of short stories and excerpts from the writings of others that Al favoured. Someone spent a lot of time getting permissions for their inclusion.
A Bluenoser myself I long for drone of those old-fashioned groaners on a foggy day and the bracing scent of salt in the air when a Sou’wester blows. And waking to the sound of the tide lapping on a rocky shore. Life revolves around those tides particularly on the Bay of Fundy where they can reach to 60 ft at spring tide and wash in faster than an Olympian can run.
So, what to expect. Emily Carr sketching totem poles. A Capulet/Montague epic in an isolated Outport where the denizens get drunk on shipwreck spirits. Tourists sit in a Nanaimo pub looking out over Gabriola Island and count the lighthouses on the shore.
There is the benign love of sea and sand here along with phantasm.
Alan Maitland
Toughed it out on CBC for 46 years. He retired to Mahone Bay near salt water in 1993 but died in Vancouver in 1999 and is buried in Port Hope, ON. Truly his Front Porch was all of Canada.
The book is a compilation of short stories and excerpts from the writings of others that Al favoured. Someone spent a lot of time getting permissions for their inclusion.
A Bluenoser myself I long for drone of those old-fashioned groaners on a foggy day and the bracing scent of salt in the air when a Sou’wester blows. And waking to the sound of the tide lapping on a rocky shore. Life revolves around those tides particularly on the Bay of Fundy where they can reach to 60 ft at spring tide and wash in faster than an Olympian can run.
So, what to expect. Emily Carr sketching totem poles. A Capulet/Montague epic in an isolated Outport where the denizens get drunk on shipwreck spirits. Tourists sit in a Nanaimo pub looking out over Gabriola Island and count the lighthouses on the shore.
There is the benign love of sea and sand here along with phantasm.
April 13, 2022
A pleasant read. Paired up with a cup of tea on a cloudy inside day, these fictional or first person experiences stories set in and around the sea, oceans, boats, and cabins here in Canada and around the world make for an interesting afternoon of reading. There are classics from authors like Guy de Maupassant, creepy tales like the Bottle Imp from Robert Louis Stevenson, a rollicking tale from Emile Zola and first person stories from Emily Carr about her journeys to paint the Haida totems in the Queen Charlotte Islands. My fave story was E. Annie Proulx's Deadman (from the Shipping News); I learned two excellent things from this tale, a new curse phrase from a weathered fisherman, "Jesus Cockadoodle Christ" and just how very homey all the oceanside houses are in our great province of Newfoundland, p173, 'Everything in the house tatted and doilied in the great art of the place, designs of lace waves and floe ice, whelk shells and sea wrack...'
This is an eclectic collection of life by the water. Pleasant, sure to make you smile.
This is an eclectic collection of life by the water. Pleasant, sure to make you smile.
February 19, 2019
Nice collection of writers with whimsical stories of the sea. Relaxing and entertaining.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews