The Good Land: Stories of Saskatchewan People

Michael Payne is head of the Research and Publications Program at the
Historic Sites and Archives Service, Alberta Community Development, and
the co-author of A Narrative History of Fort Dunvegan.

The contents of this book will be very familiar to readers of the
Saskatoon StarPhoenix. Peter Wilson has been a photographer and writer
with that paper for many years, specializing in writing human-interest
stories on unusual, intriguing, and sometimes eccentric residents of
Saskatchewan. What unites his subjects is that none of them is a
conventional subject for a newspaper profile. They are not the
politicians, business leaders, academics, or celebrities that usually
grace the pages of our leading newspapers. They are ordinary people who
do extraordinary things.

This book is a compilation of 51 short articles that touch on a wide
range of characters, from an amateur fossil hunter and a professional
Santa Claus to a couple of hermits and a farmer who keeps lynx as pets.
As with any such collection, some of the people profiled will seem more
interesting than others to different readers. Wilson, however, takes all
of his subjects equally seriously, treating them with respect and trying
to present their sometimes unusual ideas and activities fairly and in
their own words. He also tries to capture a sense of what makes them
interesting people in the photograph accompanying each profile.

The Good Land suggests that Saskatchewan offers a fertile environment
for strong individualists. Certainly they seem to find a place
there—and through this book a voice, too.