Rogues and Rebels

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY MAY 9, 2016

Following his 2002 book, Scoundrels and Scallywags, Brennan has collected more profiles of larger-than-life figures from western Canada. This book focuses on well-known people such as social reformer Nellie McClung, politicians Tommy Douglas and Ralph Klein, and writers Robert Kroetsch and Heather Robertson. But it is also crammed with more obscure and equally fascinating characters, such as romance novelist Winnifred Eaton, who wrote under the Japanese pen name Onoto Watanna; Joseph Clarke, a municipal politician from Edmonton with a predilection for solving political disputes with fisticuffs; and Will James, a cowboy and artist who claimed "he always wore boots and spurs to bed to keep from falling off." Some of Brennan's subjects are infamous. Anglican missionary and Archdeacon John William Tims was loathed by the Indigenous tribes he was trying to convert to Christianity, particularly for his rigid views on compulsory attendance of children at the now notorious Indian Residential Schools. Edward Arthur Wilson founded an occult society in the 1920s and swindled thousands of its members. This is a thoroughly entertaining read for those who know the Canadian West and anyone who would like to know more about some of the strange and sometimes wonderful characters the region has bred.