The North I Love

Percy Maddox was a Vancouver librarian.

There are those who devoted a great deal of their lives to the North of Canada and who were much attached to it. Gerald Malaher was one of these. Born in 1903, he spent his first ten years in rural Shropshire, and then the family moved to rural Yorkshire. In these country settings he developed a devotion to nature, and in 1921 he went to Canada, to which six other members of the family of 12 had already immigrated.

Instead of going to a city to settle, he headed for northern Manitoba to find work, and he managed to concentrate his life work of forestry and conservation up there, although he moved with his wife and family to Winnipeg in 1946 upon becoming Director of Game and Fisheries for Manitoba. He retired in 1967.

Before his death on July 14, 1984, he wrote of his northern experiences in a series of short articles that he put together in the large-format volume appropriately entitled The North I Love. This book shows his love for the North and his understanding of it and of the people and the wild creatures that live there.

The book contains numerous captioned black-and-white photographs; there is also a section of full-colour pictures. Although each article is independent, the various articles are arranged so as to give a continuity to the author’s life story. Though it must be remembered that he is talking of conditions from 1921 on, some of which no longer prevail, he provides vivid stories of the land, the wild life, and the people he encountered — Indians, medicine men, workers, airplane pilots, trappers, and poachers.

This author has a magic touch. He never dwells long enough on any one thing to tire the reader; rather, the reader, absorbed in the story, is left asking for more. Malaher’s work is not only enjoyable reading but is very enlightening, for it gives the reader a grasp of environment, events, and existence in the northern regions.