Dynamite Stories

Ann Turner is the financial and budget manager of the University of
British Columbia Library.

Dynamite is a common thread in this collection of stories told by and
about the settlers of Refuge Cove, a small community in Desolation Sound
off the rugged British Columbia coast. Dynamite has its legitimate uses
in the logging and mining industries of the area, but it has also been
employed in creative ways to deal with other situations that the
inhabitants encountered over the years.

The main yarn spinner for this collection is nominally Doris Hope, a
resident since 1945 and repository of the community’s oral history.
She has been keeping the history alive and lively by recounting the
stories to new arrivals and visitors at every opportunity. In setting
them down on paper, the author says she has tried to capture Doris’s
characteristic storytelling style as well as the historical substance of
the tales. Combined with the author’s telling of her own experiences
at Refuge Cove, the result is a highly entertaining description of the
life and characters in this remote community, past and present. Numerous
black-and-white photographs illustrate the text.