Sky Train and Other Ward Stories from the CBC's «Fresh Air»

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

Ward McBurney tells it as he sees and feels it. He writes and broadcasts
his short essays regularly on CBC Radio One’s Fresh Air program. This
compilation of his commentaries touches on a wide variety of subjects
and experiences, both historical and personal. McBurney has a keen sense
of observation and an insatiable curiosity coupled with an intimacy of
narrative. The stories are conversational vignettes of the past and
present. Local themes address tales of Toronto’s Bathurst Street
Bridge, the Fort Henry Guard, Fort York, and literary critic/professor
Northrop Frye. Further afield, the author recounts working on a French
farm and studying in New York and at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
Grand Central Station in New York, Toronto’s St. Lawrence Market, and
the Hamilton Steam Museum play equally important roles in McBurney’s
eclectic life. This finely written collection provides informative and
humane reflections on the natural foibles of daily life.