Fontana Paperback, 1970
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The Young Clementina (1935)
Tracking Moose
Occasionally
an author drifts into the library and peers round at the dusty
shelves in dismay. "Oh--er--I was told that this was a geographical library,"
he
says. "Have you--er--up-to-date travel books here?" "Any book that adds to the
geographical knowledge of the world," he is informed. "A book about Borneo,"
he says deprecatingly (or Canada or the Antarctic perhaps.) "A book about
Borneo--something not too--er--heavy. Just to give one the idea of
the--er--country
and its inhabitants. A little local colour--perhaps you can advise--"
Perhaps I can, because I make a point of reading all the books that come into
the library--or at least glancing through them--and because this is my job and I
have been at it for twelve years. Twelve years is a long time to spend amongst
books about Borneo and Canada and the Antarctic. "Ah, thank you," he says,
flipping over the leaves and examining the illustrations with studied
carelessness. "This does seem the kind of thing--this seems exactly--"
Authors often leave their sentences unfinished like that--at least the kind who
come to Wentworth's do--and they are always men. Women authors seem to bother
less about local colour, or perhaps they bother more. Perhaps they actually
pack a couple of suitcases and trek off to Borneo or Canada or wherever it may
be, before they send their hero there to hob-nob with the head-hunters or to
track moose.
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Snowbound for Months
Geoff Howard, the bachelor engineer who attended Garth's coming of age party in
1914, has now returned from Canada, where's he's lived since the War, and makes
friends with Char and Clementina.
Mr. Howard [resumed] his rather one-sided conversation with me. I had never
met a man who talked so continuously as Mr. Howard without being boring or
didactic. I found afterwards that he had spent long months snowbound in Canada
with nobody
of his own stamp
to converse with, and concluded that he was still busy making up for lost time.
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Collins 1959
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Still Glides the Stream (1959)
It's a big country, you know
Patty Elliot Murray is delighted to learn that her friend Brenda Heston's
father has a
business partner named Murray who was born in Canada and just might a relative.
Despite the fact that he changed his name, and Murray is a very common name,
and Canada is a big country, he is.
"Because they're relations," replied Patty. "At least Daddy thinks they may
be. Mr. Murray is probably the son of Daddy's father's brother who went to
Canada and got lost...."
"Oh Patty, what fun!" exclaimed Brenda. "Mr. Murray was born in Canada, I know
that. Duncan told me."
A locket turns out to reveal the relationship.
"My father was a bit wild in his younger days," explained Mr. Murray. "He
quarrelled with his family and went over to Canada in a huff determined to make
his fortune. That's why he dropped the 'Elliot' from his name and ceased to
communicate with them."
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The House on the Cliff (1966)
The Scuzzball from Montreal
Elfrida Jane's long-lost Canadian cousin, Walter, is not only a slimeball in
general, but a villain in particular, out to bilk her of her inheritance. We
will not dwell on his crimes.
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Fontana, 1970
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The Story of Rosabelle Shaw (1938)
Clearing in the West
Rosabelle's friend Tom Gilmour goes to Canada prior to the First World War
...to
study the conditions of farming over there. It was what he had always wanted
to do, and his father thought it could do him no harm to see a little of the
world before settling down at Langside.
After his return...
Tom talked about Canada and his experiences there, and the huge golden fields
of corn* which stretched as far as eye could see, and he told Rosabelle about
the farm where he had boarded, about the rough hard life and the tough hard men
and women who lived it.
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*Tom is no doubt referring to wheat, taking into account the transatlantic
differences in the meaning of the word 'corn'
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