Here Be Dragons: Telling Tales of People, Passion, and Power

Ashley Thomson is a full librarian at Laurentian University and co-editor or co-author of nine books, most recently Margaret Atwood: A Reference Guide, 1988-2005.

Businesspeople and politicians of any note in Canada knew that they had
made it when they were “Newmanized”—that is, profiled as
interesting, powerful people, with all their warts and eccentricities on
display, thanks to Newman’s skills as a sly interviewer, intrepid
researcher, and close observer. A Newman book comes complete with lots
of jokes, plenty of footnotes, leisurely but fascinating strolls off
topic, and a style of writing known to his few detractors as “purple
prose” and to his many admirers as “creative non-fiction.”

Here Be Dragons starts off with Newman in Czechoslovakia forced to flee
that country in the face of Nazi invaders, and continues on with the
better-known events of his life: education at Upper Canada College; jobs
at the Financial Post, Maclean’s, the Toronto Daily Star, and the
National Post; and, finally, his book-writing ventures, including this
one. Interspersed throughout the book are stories of his lesser-known
enthusiasms, among them sailing and marriage (or, more accurately,
remarriage).

There are a couple of weaknesses: Chapter 9 on Newman’s career in the
Royal Canadian Navy is plunked right in the middle with no visible
connection to the chapters that precede or follow it; and, later in the
book, his descriptions of his sailing expeditions around Vancouver
Island and elsewhere are a bit heavy-going.

The book’s title reflects both Newman’s love of sailing and the
maps of ancient cartographers that used dragons to mark dangerous
uncharted seas. As he looks back, Newman sees danger and uncertainty
marking most of his life. The good news is that as he nears the end, the
dragons have been conquered; readers of this engaging, self-reflective
book will come to understand why.

Here Be Dragons is the 2004 winner of The Drainie-Taylor Biography
Prize from the Writers’ Trust of Canada. And no wonder—in it, Newman
has brilliantly Newmanized himself.