Signings, Lectures, and Talks
On Sunday, February 19 from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m., I will give a talk to the Comox Valley Naturalists' Society entitled "Bird Man of Comox: Mack Laing and the Natural History of the Comox Valley." The talk will be held at the Florence Filberg Centre in Courtenay. Contact Loys Maingon.
On Tuesday, February 21 , I will speak to the Vancouver Section of the CIF ( Canadian Institute of Forestry) on "Steam in the Mountains: The Comox Logging Company on Vancouver Island." Contact Janet Mitchell.
On Wednesday evening, February 22, and Thursday morning, February 23, I will be selling and signing copies of Island Timber and Mountain Timber at the book table at the ABCFP conference (Association of BC Forest Professionals) at the Empress Hotel, Victoria. For more information, contact Dave Haley.
On Saturday, February 25 from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm, I will speak and sign books at the Literary Luminaries Event at the Nanaimo Museum. For more information, contact Aimee Greenaway, Program Coordinator at 250-753-1821
Mountain Timber News and Reviews
In May 2010 Mountain Timber received an Honorable Mention in the British Columbia Historical Federation's Writing Awards.
A BC Bestseller! Mountain Timber was on the BC Bestseller list for 32 weeks between October 2009 and August 2010.
Reviewed by Dave Obee in the Victoria Times-Colonist, 15 November 2009:
"It's difficult to find anything to criticize about this book, and there is plenty to praise. Once again, Mackie has raised the bar for writers of local history. He has created a permanent record of a critical period in the Island's history, and put it into a highly readable and entertaining package."
Reviewed by Mark Forsyth in BC Bookworld (Winter 2009-2010), p. 29:
"Mackie builds commendably on the work of local historians and newspaper accounts, but it's the voices of employees and descendants that give this account its lifeblood, detailing a way of life that sustained communities and families for decades..."
Reviewed by North Island Midweek.com, 4 January 2010:
"A very welcome sequel to Island Timber..., Mountain Timber ... is another gem, chock-full of fascinating photos of the men, mountains, machines and families that inhabited the region past the turn of the last century..."
Reviewed by Stephen Hume in the Vancouver Sun, 31 July, 2010:
"Richard Somerset Mackie provides an eloquent remembrance of the vanished world of big timber logging on Vancouver Island in his lavishly illustrated book Mountain Timber, published by Sono Nis Press in 2009. This sequel to his earlier critically acclaimed volume of social history, Island Timber, tells the stories of the tough characters who first ventured from the easily logged coastal plains into the steep and rugged terrain of the Island's interior in the early decades of the 20th century."
