Hugh Brody Maps and Dreams (Faber/Waveland; both
o/p). Brilliantly written account of the lives and lands of the
Beaver natives of northwest Canada. For further acute insights into
the ways of the far north see also the same author's Living
Arctic (Faber, o/p/University of Washington Press) and The
People's Land: Eskimos and Whites in the Eastern Arctic
(Douglas & McIntyre, US, o/p).
P. Browning The Last Wilderness (Hutchinson/Great
West Books, o/p). An engrossing description of a harsh and lonely
canoe journey through the Northwest Territories.
Ranulph Fiennes The Headless Valley (Hodder &
Stoughton, UK, o/p). Tales of derring-do from noted adventurer,
white-water rafting down the South Nahanni and Fraser rivers of
British Columbia and the old NWT.
Barry Lopez Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a
Northern Landscape (Picador/Bantam). Extraordinary,
award-winning book combining natural history, physics, poetry,
earth sciences and philosophy in a dazzling portrait of the far
north.
David McFadden Trip Around Lake Ontario (Coach
House Press, 1988; reprinted in Great Lakes Suite/Talon Books).
Part of a trilogy detailing the author's circumnavigation of lakes
Ontario, Erie and Huron written in a deceptively simple style.
Gary and Joannie McGuffin Canoeing Across Canada
(Diadem, UK, o/p). Reflections on a 6000-mile journey through the
country's rivers and backwaters.
Susanna Moodie Roughing It in the Bush: or Forest Life
in Canada (McClelland & Stewart). Wonderful narrative
written in 1852, describing an English couple's slow ruin as they
attempt to create a new life in southeastern Ontario.
Jan Morris O Canada: Travels in an Unknown Country
(Robert Hale, o/p/HarperCollins, o/p) Musings from this well-known
travel writer after a coast-to-coast Canadian trip.
Duncan Pryde Nununga: Ten Years of Eskimo Life
(Eland/Hippocrene). Less a travel book than a social document from
a Glaswegian who left home at eighteen to spend ten years with the
Inuit.