The Newspapering Murrays

Robin V.H. Bellamy was an editor and bibliographer in Vancouver.

This book is a reprint not of the 1967 (McClelland & Stewart) edition, but (with minor changes) of the 1974 (Lilloet Publishers Ltd.) edition. The revised version is much expanded and includes anecdotes and photographs not provided previously. These changes add interest to an already spirited account of one of B.C.’s most famous newspaper families.

The Murrays’ story begins in 1912, when George had just established the Vancouver Chinook and Margaret was hired as bookkeeper. Later, as husband and wife, they went on to many other publishing ventures; perhaps most notably, they founded the Bridge River-Lilloet News (1934) and Alaska Highway News (1943). They were also active in B.C. politics. George was MLA for Lilloet from 1933 to 1941, and MP for the Cariboo riding from 1949 to 1953. Margaret campaigned actively for her husband (as well as for herself in 1945) but is best known for her outspoken (and ungrammatical) responses to issues of all kinds. Margaret (“Ma”) Murray’s newspaper articles frequently evoked threats of libel suits, and she continued to stir up controversy as a popular subject of newspaper, radio, and TV interviews until her death in 1982. (This book ends with George’s death in 1961, however.)

The Newspapering Murrays recounts all of this activity, and much of their personal lives, from the perspective of another “newspapering” member of the family: Georgina Keddell is the oldest of the Murrays’ two children. Reviews of the first edition raised some questions about the completeness and detail of the material presented, which the revisions may have been intended to correct. The author still appears variously as “I,” “Georgina,” and “their daughter,” which is both confusing and misleading in terms of the narrator’s objectivity. However, no other biography of the Murrays is currently available, and it is an engaging and informative account of an important family, and a significant period of history, in B.C.

In 1981 Ma Murray attended the premiere of Eric Nicol’s play Ma! (based on Keddell’s book). Her comment on it is true to her voice as well as her spirit: “It had humour. It had a lesson. It’s worth anybody’s money to go see that show.” Which is equally applicable to this book!