Sample Reviews and Essays by W.E. McLeod
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Book Reviews
DAYLIGHT IN THE SWAMP
Memoirs of Selwyn Dewdney,
Edited by A.K. Dewdney
Review by Bill McLeod
Daylight in the Swamp is one of the best written, best illustrated and most all round delightful books that I have ever read.
Selwyn Dewdney was born in 1909, the second of four sons of Alfred Daniel Alexander Dewdney and Irene Donner. His father was an Anglican Minister who subsequently became the Bishop of Keewatin. At an early age, Selwyn accompanied his father on canoe trips throughout the diocese. It was on these trips that he developed what would become a life-long love of canoes and the wilderness…
Click here to read the entire reviewTWO IN THE BUSH
By John Moore
Review by Bill McLeod
Two in the Bush is a cracking good tale about John and Ruth Moore and their adventures in Northeastern Ontario in the years just after World War II.
The Moores, an Indiana couple, wanted to build a home in the wilderness and John intended to write a book about the experience. They did and he did but the book was never published until 2008. For reasons that I cannot fathom, Moore’s agent and the publishers he approached saw little merit in this fascinating yarn...
Click here to read the entire reviewEssays
JOHN CEREDIGION-JONES: SULTAN'S VAGABOND POET
Essay by Bill McLeod
One of Canada's more interesting little historical events occurred in the Chapleau area at Sultan in 1949. Sultan, once home of a bustling lumber mill, is located on the main line of the C.P.R. between Ramsay and Chapleau. It can be reached by driving south from Chapleau along Highway 129 and turning east on Secondary Highway 667.
John Ceredigion-Jones was a Welsh-Canadian poet who was described as being disputatious, argumentative, an inveterate writer of letters to the editor, and composer of poetry, most of it doggerel...
Click here to read the entire essayTHE REEVE AND THE KING
Essay by Bill McLeod
In the late 1930s there was a lot going on in the world. King Edward VIII had abdicated in December of 1936 and was replaced by his brother Bertie who took on the new name of George VI. The official reason for Edward’s abdication was that he was messing around with an American divorcee named Wallace Simpson and wanted to marry her. Since the British sovereign is also head of the Church of England, whose crank was not turned by divorce, Edward chose Wallace over the throne...
If all this seems like it has no connection with Chapleau, bear with me...
Click here to read the entire essayABOUT THE AUTHOR
William E. “Bill” McLeod is a retired Community College business professor.
He has published extensively in the fields of family finance and life insurance.
His latest book is about the Chapleau Residential Schools
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