Long Beach, Clayoquot and Beyond

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian studies at
Concordia University, and the author of Kurlek, Margaret Laurence: The
Long Journey Home, and As Though Life Mattered: Leo Kennedy’s Story.

Although this book will be purchased primarily for its photography, the
text is not negligible. Ten chapters, typically running two pages each,
cover such special areas as Florencia Bay, Tofino, and the
Nuu-chah-nulth people. These brief, anecdotal essays complement the
photographs very well.

Bob Herger is one of British Columbia’s top photographers. The color
photography here is achingly beautiful, breathtaking. Herger’s mastery
of light is particularly evident in two shots: the black silhouette of
an ancient evergreen with two ravens brooding on lower branches and the
ocean, still light, beyond; and a dozen black cormorants perched atop a
barren reef beneath an intensely blue sky.

Long Beach is one of the major beaches on the western edge of Pacific
Rim National Park on the exposed western coast of Vancouver Island.
Neither history nor guidebook, Long Beach, Clayoquot and Beyond does
justice to its pristine beauty.