Spilsbury's Coast

by Howard White, Jim Spilsbury

When Jim Spilsbury, B.C's most famous pioneer entrepreneur, teams up with master storyteller and literary craftsman Howard White, the result is a spell-binding romp up and down British Columbia's rugged coast; eighty years of fascinating anecdotes and memories distilled into 190 pages.
Jim Spilsbury grew up in a tent on Savary Island, squatting on crown land. His story is one of the classic "rags-to-riches" stories in Canadian history. As well as being as brilliant inventor and an ambitious, astute businessman, he had the intangible gift of being in the right place at the right time. In 1923, at the age of 18, primed with a correspondence course in electrical engineering, Jim Spilsbury began building sophisticated radio telephones. Fishermen bought them, loggers bought them, and eventually homesteaders, explorers and even governments bought them. "Radio boomed," Spilsbury recalls, "and it carried me with it."
As we follow Spilsbury in his adventures, we meet Frank Osborne, the genius engine-builder; Emil Gordon, the obsessive flamboyant Powell River salesman who sold everything from refrigerators to cows; Red Mahone, the obstreperous Boathouse cook and Spilsbury's own bizarre family, including his rifle-toting mother who cut her hair like a man's and golfed on the beaches at low tide.
Howard White, himself a child of BC's backwaters, brings the voice of authority to Spilsbury's amazing tale. A rare gem of authentic storytelling - it flows fast and bright, like a mountain stream.

196 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[Allan · Rating 5 out of 5]

To anyone who grew up on the B.C. coast Spilsbury and White's book reads like a homecoming. The little towns, the fishing and logging camps and above all the incredible people who who inhabit its rocky shores are all revealed. This is the best kind of writing because not only does it ring true it can show someone who hasn't lived there what it was truly like. Spilsbury ends the book with the comment that air travel has helped depopulate the coast with many choosing to leave for the city. I can't help but think it's their loss.

[Kathleen (itpdx) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jim Spilsbury grew up on an island in Desolation Sound, British Columbia. This an interesting telling of his life and times—the arrival of automobiles, radio receivers, radio phones, airplanes, WWII. The main focus is on Spilsbury’s creating a business around building, selling and servicing radios by boat along the British Columbia Coast during the first half of the twentieth century. The stories are interesting and well told. Occasionally he slipped off into radio technology that was not particularly understandable to me.
I recommend this book to travelers to this area, and to people interested in the history of radio.

[spike marlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It was well written and was funny. This book chronicles Jim Spilsbury’s life and experiences on the BC coast from a young boy to his work as a radio builder and technician that opened up the isolation of remote logging and fishing camps to the outside world. It also chronicles a way of life that has been forgotten. Well worth the read.

[Brynn Roach · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read if you grew up in BC and spent anytime on or around the coast. Read this while sailing the same southern and northern routes as the Five B.R. and it felt like I was time traveling.

[Kerry Meservia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very great history and stories of the BC coast.

[Kristi · Rating 3 out of 5]

We will be cruising into this area this summer. It's always fun to read stories from people who were here 'back then'.