The Morningside Years

Julie Rekai Rickerd is a Toronto-based broadcaster and public-relations
consultant.

This book is a wonderful compilation of highlights from Peter
Gzowski’s 15-year tenure as host of CBC Radio’s “Morningside.”
Included are superb interviews with writers Robertson Davies, W.O.
Mitchell, Alice Munro, Timothy Findley, Margaret Laurence, and Margaret
Atwood; a collection of recipes from The Morningside Cookbook; Mourning
Dove, a drama loosely based on Saskatchewan farmer Robert Latimer murder
trial; and a dramatization of the trial of Louis Riel.

There are poignant letters from listeners. One woman writes of the pain
of saying good-bye to her family home, where she had grown up with 12
siblings. Another describes the memorable four months she spent as Glenn
Gould’s secretary. The “Letters Home” section comprises news
reports from CBC foreign correspondents stationed in every corner of the
globe. The “Some of the Best Minds of Our Time” section includes
interviews with astro-physicist Dr. Hubert Reeves, neurophysicist Dr.
Brenda Milner, and Nobel Prize winner Dr. Michael Smith. A welcome bonus
is a CD that includes interviews with Brian Mulroney, Jean Chrétien,
and Canada’s astronauts, as well as round-table discussion featuring
“Morningside” regulars Eric Kierans, Dalton Camp, and Stephen Lewis.

This gem of a book will have “Morningside” listeners once again
ruing the day that Gzowski and his show departed the airwaves.