Roy MacGregor Books In Order

Mystery at Lake Placid

Travis Lindsay, his best friend, Nish, and all their pals on the Screech Owls hockey team, are on their way to New York for an international peewee tournament. Excitement builds in the team van on the way to Lake Placid. First there are the entertaining antics of their trainer, Mr. Dillinger then there’s the prospect of playing on an Olympic rink, in a huge arena, knowing there will be scouts in the stands. But they have barely arrived when things start to go wrong. Their star centre, Sarah, plays badly from lack of sleep. Next Travis gets knocked down in the street. And then someone starts tampering with equipment. It looks as if someone is trying to sabotage the Screech Owls. But who? And why? And can Travis and the others stop the destruction before the decisive game of the tournament?Mystery at Lake Placid is the first book in the Screech Owls Series by Roy MacGregor.

The Night They Stole the Stanley Cup

Someone is out to steal the Stanley Cup and only the Screech Owls stand between the thieves and their prize!Travis, Nish, and the rest of the Screech Owls have come to Toronto for the biggest hockey tournament of their lives only to find themselves in the biggest mess of their lives. First Nish sprains his ankle falling down the stairs at the CN Tower. Later, key members of the team get caught shoplifting. And during a tour of the Hockey Hall of Fame, Travis overhears two men plotting to swipe the priceless Stanley Cup and hold it for ransom! Can the Screech Owls do anything to save the most revered trophy in the land? And can the team also rise to the challenge on the ice and play their best hockey ever?The Night They Stole the Stanley Cup is the second book in the Screech Owls Series. Check out the Screech Owls website at www. screechowls. com

The Screech Owls’ Northern Adventure

The Screech Owls are on the road again, on a bumpy plane ride way up North that will land them in some very deep trouble!When Jesse Highboy’s dad asked the Screech Owls how they felt about going to James Bay to play in the First Nations Peewee Hockey Tournament, everyone thought it was a great idea. It was the first time a non native team had been invited, and the pressure would be on the Owls to live up to the honour and play some good clean hockey. More important, Travis and his teammates would also get the chance to stay with local native families, eat traditional food, travel by Ski Doo, and experience what life in the North is all about. But freezing to death all alone in the bush, with a storm howling and the dreaded Trickster stalking the night? No one had asked the Screech Owls how they felt about that!The Screech Owls Northern Adventure is the third book in the Screech Owls Series. Check out the Screech Owls website at www. screechowls. com

Murder at Hockey Camp

Travis, Nish, and the rest of the Screech Owls are in the heart of cottage country to spend a week at summer hockey camp. Joining them for some off season practice is Sarah Cuthbertson the Owls former captain with her new team, the Junior Aeros. It promises to be a wonderful seven days of sun, sand, and skating. Nish is even planning the World’s Biggest Skinny Dip!But it s not all fun and sun. The owner of the camp, Buddy O Reilly, is a tyrant a surly former NHLer, even meaner now than he was as a player. Soon coach Muck Munro, who never believed in summer hockey in the first place, has to warn the bully to stay away from the Screech Owls. Next morning dawns bright and warm but not warm enough to stir the cold body hidden in the boathouse! Now a killer is at large, and the Screech Owls are right in the middle of a real life murder case. Murder at Hockey Camp is the fourth book in the Screech Owls Series.

Kidnapped in Sweden

The Screech Owls are off to Stockholm to take part in the first ever International Goodwill Peewee Tournament, featuring teams from Finland, Norway, the Czech Republic, Germany, and Russia, as well as from all over Sweden. Not only do the Owls get to go on the trip of a lifetime, they also learn the differences between European and North American hockey and make some great new friends including the thirteen year old Russian phenomenon Slava Shadrin, who is already being called the next Pavel Bure. The young hockey star even travels with his own bodyguards. The police, it turns out, suspect the Russian Mob is planning to kidnap Slava and hold him for ransom!And sure enough, when Slava and his new Screech Owls friends give his bodyguards the slip, the Mob moves in. But the villains end up with more captives than they intended Kidnapped in Sweden is the fifth book in the Screech Owls Series by Roy MacGregor, joining Mystery at Lake Placid, The Night They Stole the Stanley Cup, The Screech Owls’ Northern Adventure, and Murder at Hockey Camp.

Terror in Florida

When Travis, Nish, Sarah, and the rest of the gang pile onto a school bus headed for Florida, the Screech Owls expect a spring break filled with sun, sand, and lots of ice. With luck they may even make it to the peewee tournament final, to be held in the magnificent Ice Palace, home of the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning!

Muck and Mr. Dillinger have planned a fun trip. As well as camping and swimming, they ll get to go to Disney World. Nish, of course, has bigger ideas. With his new X ray glas*ses he bought on the stupid stop on the way down, he s hoping to see a lot more than just tourist attractions.

The only trouble is, Nish ends up seeing too much! Travis wasn t looking forward to riding the Tower of Terror at the Disney MGM Studios, but it s going to take even more courage to face this. The Screech Owls have uncovered a plot to terrorize all of America!

Terror in Florida is the sixth book in the Screech Owls Series.

The Quebec City Crisis

It is Winter Carnival time in beautiful Quebec City. The Screech Owls are in town to join in the winter fun and take part in the biggest hockey tournament on earth: the famous Quebec Peewee Invitational. This is where Guy Lafleur, Wayne Gretzky, and Mario Lemieux first showed the world their incredible talents and now it’s the turn of Travis, Nish, Sarah, and their friends. But the dream trip soon turns into a nightmare. Travis is asked to keep a diary that will be published in one of the big daily newspapers and a terrible misunderstanding follows. Soon after Travis s words appear in print, the crowds are booing the Screech Owls, and someone no one knows who begins a campaign of terror against the team. The Owls know they are good enough to make it to the final. Sarah could even equal a tournament record set by the great Guy Lafleur! But if the Owls are to stand any chance at all, they must find out who is trying to destroy them. The Quebec City Crisis is the seventh book in the Screech Owls Series. Check out the Screech Owls website at www. screechowls. com

The Screech Owls’ Home Loss

When a phone call from Nish gets Travis out of bed one bright winter’s morning, it looks as if it s going to be the best weekend ever. The Screech Owls home town lies beneath a thick fall of snow, topped with a layer of hard, smooth, beautiful ice. The whole world has become one gigantic skating rink. If only there were a way, thinks Travis, for these two wonderful days to last forever. But before the weekend is over, Travis wishes it had never begun. One of the Screech Owls lies in a hospital bed, unable to move the victim of a cowardly drunk driver who has fled the scene of the crime. Now the Screech Owls must face a challenge that would make the toughest hockey game seem easy. Somewhere in the town of Tamarack a criminal is in hiding, and somehow for the sake of their teammate Travis and the Screech Owls must find a way to pull together and bring the culprit to justice. The Screech Owls Home Loss is the eigth book in the Screech Owls Series. Check out the Screech Owls website at www. screechowls. com

Nightmare in Nagano

Travis and the Screech Owls are flying to Nagano, site of the 1998 Winter Olympics, to play in Big Hat the same arena where for the first time NHL stars competed for medals and women played Olympic hockey!No one is more excited than Nish to be in Japan, the land of the rising sun and the electrically heated toilet seat, and a soft drink called Sweat ! He and the gang see new things on ice too. Their Japanese opponents play a very different style of hockey. And Nish, who has discovered a new form of martial arts on his trip, is counting on a mysterious force shield to help his game. Then a shadow falls over the tournament. The mayor of Nagano collapses at the opening night banquet. The Owls are caught in a freak avalanche while snowboarding. A menacing stranger is following them. As the Owls head to the finals, one question is on everyone’s mind: When will the nightmare end?Nightmare in Nagano is the ninth book in the Screech Owls Series. Check out the Screech Owls website at www. screechowls. com

Danger in Dinosaur Valley

Summer has come early to the town of Drumheller, Alberta. The Screech Owls were expecting deep winter just like back home but when they arrive for the annual Dinosaur Pee Wee Tournament, they find a warm chinook has blown the winter cold away.

Drumheller is the Dinosaur Capital of Canada, home of the fierce Albertosaurus cousin to Tyrannosaurus rex whose ancient bones were discovered here more than one hundred years ago. It’s also the home of sports psychologist Kelly Block, whose weird ideas on how to build a better team threaten to pull the Screech Owls apart.

But nothing is as weird as what happens to Nish and the others in Dinosaur Valley. When Nish returns from mountain biking, he claims he almost became breakfast for a living, breathing Albertosaurus! Of course his friends don t believe him, but when Travis, Sarah, and their teammates go for their own ride in the hills, they come back with a monstrous story that makes international headlines.

Danger in Dinosaur Valley is the tenth book in the Screech Owls Series.

The Ghost of the Stanley Cup

The Screech Owls have come to Ottawa to play in the Little Stanley Cup peewee tournament. This relaxed summer event honours Lord Stanley himself the man who donated the Stanley Cup to hockey and gives young players a chance to see the wonders of Canada’s capital city, travel into the wilds of Algonquin Park, and even go river rafting. Mr. Dillinger is also taking them to visit some of the region s famous ghosts: the ghost of a dead prime minister; the ghost of a man hanged for murder; the ghost of the famous painter Tom Thomson. At first the Owls think this is Mr. Dillinger s best idea ever, until Travis and his friends begin to suspect that one of these ghosts could be for real. Who is this phantom? Why has he come to haunt the Screech Owls? And what is his connection to the mysterious young stranger who offers to coach the team?The Ghost of the Stanley Cup is the eleventh book in the Screech Owls Series. Check out the Screech Owls website at www. screechowls. com

The West Coast Murders

It was Sarah who spotted the first body The Screech Owls journey to Vancouver had begun as an innocent hockey road trip. They had come to play in the new 3 on 3 shinny tournament. But when the team headed out to sea to watch the first whales of the season return to the West Coast, the dream trip turned into a horrifying adventure. It was Travis who spotted the second one Two bodies one a dolphin, one a man bobbing in the tide. And when Nish stared down at the floating, twisting body of the man and announced We know him! the Screech Owls also knew they were in the middle of a baffling mystery. Slowly, the truth begins to emerge: an international smuggling operation, a heroic dolphin, and a wildly brilliant plan. The Screech Owls are almost enjoying themselves, until they discover their own lives are in danger!The West Coast Murders is the twelfth book in the Screech Owls Series. Check out the Screech Owls website at www. screechowls. com

Sudden Death in New York City

Nish has done some crazy things but nothing to match this! At midnight on New Year’s Eve he s planning to moon the entire world. The Screech Owls have come to New York City for the Big Apple International Peewee Tournament. They ll be playing in Madison Square Garden, home of the New York Rangers, and on New Year s Eve they are going to Times Square for the biggest party in history. The countdown to midnight will be broadcast live on a giant TV screen and beamed around the world by a satellite. But Data and Fahd figure out that with just a laptop computer and video camera they can interrupt the broadcast and Nish will have pulled off the most outrageous stunt ever. Travis, Sarah, and the others have heard it all before. They are more interested in playing in the tournament and exploring the most exciting city on Earth. But no one anticipated just how exciting New York can be. Just hours before midnight, the Owls discover that terrorists plan to disrupt the New Year s celebration in a more dramatic way than even Nish could have imagined. Sudden Death in New York City is the thirteenth book in the Screech Owls Series. Check out the Screech Owls website at www. screechowls. com

Horror on River Road

Summer’s coming and school will soon be out! The Screech Owls would love to keep playing hockey, but Muck has a better idea. The Owls are going to learn why so many of the great hockey stars are devoted to the weird and wonderful game of lacrosse.

Travis, Sarah, Nish, and their friends discover lacrosse is a lot like hockey, but with a magic all its own. When the Screech Owls meet their strange new lacrosse coach, however, Travis discovers something else.

Their home town has a deadly secret. Something terrible once happened out on River Road, and a boy their own age disappeared probably murdered.

Nish is delighted. He s been looking for the perfect plot for his new horror movie. But as the Screech Owls begin to uncover the truth about what happened, and start filming Nish s movie, they find they are part of a real life horror story themselves.

Death Down Under

The Screech Owls are flying around the world to Sydney, Australia, site of the 2000 Olympics, for an exhibition tournament to promote ice hockey in the sports mad land down under.

The trip, however, involves much more than hockey. The teams coming to Sydney will take part in The Peewee Olympics a once in a lifetime opportunity for the youngsters to compete in real Olympic sports facilities.

What will it be for Nish? The pole vault? Synchronized swimming? Beach volleyball?

The team is also invited to tour Sydney’s magnificent zoo and the world renowned Sydney Aquarium, where Sarah’s interest in bizarre marine biology leads to a field trip in search of an endangered sea horse. A field trip that brings the Screech Owls face to face with Death Down Under.

Power Play In Washington

The Screech Owls are in Washington, D.C., for the International Goodwill Peewee Championship and Nish is about to become a news flash seen round the world! Literally. Because the craziest Owl ever has a brand new plan: to streak the White House. His way into the White House, he believes, is through the Screech Owls new friend, who not only plays centre for the Washington Wall, but just happens to be the son of the U.S. president!It is a hockey tournament with a difference: secret service agents, sniffer dogs, metal detectors, worldwide media attention and the most cunning political assassination plan in modern history. When the Owls head for a normal kids day out with their new friend, the president’s son, they have no idea they are about to get involved in a dangerous international power play, with murder the real game plan of their opponents. Check out the Screech Owls’ website at www. screechowls. com.

The Secret of the Deep Woods

It’s summer, and Rachel Highboy, Jesse s hockey playing cousin from James Bay, has come to Tamarack to join the Screech Owls on a week long canoe trip into the wilds of Algonquin Park. At the same time, the rookie hero of this year s Stanley Cup final is in a light plane that goes missing somewhere in the area. It is eerily like the story of Bill Barilko, the legendary Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman who disappeared when his plane crashed deep in the Ontario bush in 1951, just four months after he scored the Stanley Cup winning goal!When some of the team including a terrified Nish become separated from the others and find themselves lost in the deep woods, strange things begin to happen. A wolf comes each night to stand by the campfire. A mysterious stranger pays a visit. And a shocking discovery has Rachel and the Screech Owls wondering if they ll make it out alive!

Murder at the Winter Games

The Screech Owls have come to Salt Lake City for the Peewee Winter Games with the championship game to be played on the same ice surface where the Canadian men and women won Olympic hockey gold! Nish has plans to run his own competition: the Gross Out Olympics, featuring everything from taping players to dressing room walls with duct tape to the Snot Shot seeing how far they can fire a jellybean using only their noses. He also has a team contest to see who can figure out the Great Nish Secret and guess what the nuttiest Screech Owl of all has buried at centre ice for good luck. But that secret pales once the Owls find out something strange something terrifying is going on in the tunnels deep beneath the magnificent hills surrounding the Olympic site.

Attack on the Tower of London

The Screech Owls have won a contest that takes them to London, England, for a once in a lifetime chance to play in line hockey at historic Wembley Stadium. They leave the morning after Hallowe en and arrive in time to celebrate Guy Fawkes Day in Britain. But between trips to Madame Tussaud’s infamous Chamber of Horrors and the notorious Tower of London, the Owls become entangled in a plot so dangerous and frightening it makes Hallowe en seem like a tea party.

The Screech Owls’ Reunion

The Owls are all grown up, and now they re returning home to play an exhibition game in the town’s new arena. But deep trouble has also come to Tamarack. The Screech Owls are all grown up. Ten years have passed, and Travis, Sarah, Nish, and their friends have gone theirseparate ways, most of them scattered far and wide from their old home town. Travis is a teacher. Sarah is captain of the women s Olympic hockey team. Data runs a computer business with Fahd. Wilson is a police officer. And Nish? Nish is in Las Vegas, a valued member of the aerial stunt team The Flying Elvises. When the people of Tamarack decide to name their new sports complex The Sarah Cuthbertson Arena, it is the perfect time for all the old friends to reunite and play an opening night exhibition game. But as the Screech Owls start to return, trouble also comes to Tamarack. The unspoiled town faces disaster in the form of a new gambling casino, and it seems that the powerful developers will stop at nothing to get their way. Not even murder.

The Kindergarten Caper

In this prequel to the Screech Owls mystery series, the kindergarten class of Lord Stanley Public School find themselves involved in their very first mystery at the same time as the gang Travis, Nish, Sarah and most of the other Owls take to the ice for the very first time. This is the story of why the Screech Owls became the Screech Owls, and how Nish went from the most disliked kid in school to, as he put it, the hero of the fledgling hockey team.

Peril at the World’s Biggest Hockey Tournament

The long awaited addition to a series that has sold one million copies. The Screech Owls have come to Ottawa, the capital of Canada, to play in the world’s biggest minor league hockey tournament more than 500 teams gathering from all over the world! Little does Nish realize, as he befriends the hilarious, daring mascot, that he is about to embark on the most terrifying adventure of his lifetime. The Bell Capital Cup is a tournament that brings together 25,000 kids and more than 510 teams. Published to coincide with the next Cup over the 2007/2008 winter holiday, this new Screech Owls book is a grand re entry for this outstanding series.

Trouble at the Top of the World

Global warming, conservation, the exotic Arctic topics that kids are interested in and can get excited about make this latest addition to the bestselling series a winner.

The Screech Owls have been invited to the Inuit community of Pangnirtung, high in the Arctic Circle in Canada’s newest province, Nunavut. For the Owls, it is a magical world, filled with twenty four hour daylight, golf among the icebergs, feasts of raw meat, dogsleds, and the magnificent polar bear. They have come to play in a four team tournament that features Zeke Zebedee, the greatest hockey talent ever to come out of the Arctic. But they also land smack in the middle of a story of international intrigue, global warming and threatened species.

Canoe Lake

A troubled American woman travels to a small Ontario town, determined to find the mother she has never known. As she searches through dusty records and stirs up old memories among those around her, three young people emerge from the mists of the past a beautiful woman named Jenny, a shy local boy named Russell, and a dark eyed painter named Tom, who changes the course of Jenny and Russell’s lives. Historical reality and conjecture are skilfully interwoven with intrigue and suspense as these three move unwittingly toward tragedy.

Forever

Ruth Schwartz Children’s Book Award nominee, 2006 Canadian Children’s Book Centre Our Choice, 2007 Snow Willow Award nominee 2006 ‘Forever we’ve been doing it absolutely Forever!’ Bump has been longing to play in the annual Christmas Classic his family’s annual hockey game for what feels like Forever. A tradition begun many years ago by Bump’s Grampa and the uncles, the Christmas Classic is the family’s annual hockey game played by everyone in the family. Everyone but Bump that is. Even his sister Poodle takes part. When Gramma measures him against the kitchen doorframe, Bump doesn’t quite meet the height requirements. Then comes that magical year, when Grampa announces, ‘Tomorrow, the Christmas Classic welcomes a new player.’ Bump knows his time has come. Bump prays that he won’t make a fool of himself, that he will play as well as he always has in his dreams. Maybe he will even be named the Most Valuable Player and have his name engraved on the Christmas Classic trophy. When the game is finally played, Grampa and Bump combine for the final goal in a moment that Bump will remember Forever. But that’s not the end of Bump’s story. What follows elevates Bump’s story to the realm of myth and legend, the cementing of a tradition that will warm the hearts of countless readers and live on Forever.

Home Game: Hockey and Life in Canada (With: Ken Dryden)

In October 1983 Ken Dryden gave us what was called the best non fiction book ever written about hockey The Game. In that same month Roy MacGregor published what was hailed as the best novel ever written about hockey The Last Season. In 1989 these two writers teamed up to write another extraordinary book: inspired by Ken Dryden’s major CBC TV series on hockey, Home Game takes us all the way from street hockey to the showdowns between Canada and the Soviets. On publication, Home Game shot to the top of the bestseller lists, establishing itself as must reading for every hockey fan. Not only was this lavish book with over 95 full colour photographs popular among ordinary Canadians: book reviewers loved it.

The Life, Times and Passing of Pierre Elliott Trudeau

From the National Post, Montreal Gazette, and Ottawa Citizen comes this loving, poignant, and spectacular tribute to Canada’s premier politician, Pierre Elliott Trudeau. When on September 28, 2000, at the age of 80, Trudeau passed away, Canadians said goodbye to the sole figure who had dominated their hearts, minds, and imaginations, for forty years. Hailed as Canada s ‘spirit of the age’, Trudeau had become a calendar for the largest generation ever to pass through Canadian society. He was a Canadian institution, a face as familiar as any Canadian landscape. As Roy Macgregor writes, he was ‘much like his own country’ with his expansiveness, diversity, charm, and wit. In this commemorative volume, you ll find breath taking photographs of Trudeau s life and death, stirring words from those who loved him, and so much more: Introduction by Roy MacGregor Justin Trudeau s Eulogy Sacha Trudeau s Reading Peter C. Newman s ‘An Appraisal’ Jacques Hebert s Eulogy Robert Fulford s ‘The Contrarian Viewpoint’ Condolences Tributes 6 photo essays And much more A stirring and stunning tribute that celebrates one of the greatest men of our age.

A Loonie for Luck

In February 2002, the greatest hockey teams this country could muster headed to Salt Lake City to compete in the Winter Olympics. Our men and women hoped to go all the way to the finals, but it had been fifty long years since the Canadians had won Olympic gold. In the past, they had come close it was just that luck always seemed to be against them. This time, however, their chances to end the long drought were good. The women looked set for a medal although the all powerful American team stood between them and the ultimate prize. The Canadian men faced strong opponents, too, but prospects were good for the all star team assembled by the great Wayne Gretzky. And this time, both teams had a secret weapon. So secret, in fact, they didn t even know it existed. At first. Like all good secrets this one was too good not to pass along. Under the surface at centre ice, Trent Evans had hidden a Canadian loonie. The expert ice maker had been invited down from Edmonton to help install the ice for the Games, and this was his little good luck charm for our Olympic hockey teams. Perhaps, he figured, the guys could use some home ice advantage.A Loonie for Luck is the true story of that loonie and the magic it wove at Salt Lake City. It follows Wayne Gretzky, Trent Evans, and the men’s and women s teams through their time at the Games. And it pays tribute to the role of superstition and chance in hockey a part of the sport not always acknowledged, but one that brings real magic to the game. With the close co operation of Wayne Gretzky and Trent Evans, Roy MacGregor tells the inside story of how the coin came to be in Trent Evans pocket and then buried under centre ice. He tells how, throughout the Games, the loonie was in danger of being uncovered as the secret began to spread, and how, as the tournament progressed, with the players in need of every break they could get, the good luck miraculously held. This true story, brilliantly illustrated by Bill Slavin, is full of suspense, humour, and charm. It will delight every Canadian who felt a surge of pride for our athletes at Salt Lake City. From the Hardcover edition.

Escape: In Search of the Natural Soul of Canada

We think of the cottage or cabin as a place where we can be our truest, most authentic selves. For those lucky enough to own one, just knowing it awaits can sustain the soul through the workday grind. In Escape, Roy MacGregor explores the powerful hold the wilderness, and the thought of our place in it, has on our imaginations. He weaves together chapters of personal history, telling of his family’s deep connection to the lakes and forests of central Ontario, and chapters that detail the evolution of the idea of wilderness in Canada and the history of Cottage Country. He shows that the Canadian wilderness meant freedom for many early settlers escaping privation and oppression in Europe. It meant a chance to create a paradise on earth to some early Utopians, and it meant a chance to profit from the desperate or gullible, such as at Cannington Manor in Saskatchewan and Brother Twelve s City of Refuge on Vancouver Island. In more recent times, the wilderness and the cottage have represented an escape from a technologically driven and hectic civilization although too often we take the trappings of our urban lives with us to the detriment of our intended refuge. In cottage country, MacGregor suggests, we may be loving our wilderness to death. This is a thoughtful, evocative, and often moving book about an essential part of the Canadian psyche by one of our best loved writers. From the Hardcover edition.

Canadians

Who are we? In Canadians, one of Canada’s most intelligent and beloved writers maps our national psyche in a wonderful and ambitious work. Canadians is an entertaining portrait of this country and its people, through its history, popular culture, literature, sport, landscape, and weather. In his pursuit of the Canadian national identity,MacGregor has travelled far and wide, taking our pulse, telling our stories. A sparkling blend of historical, anecdotal, and reflective writing converges in a narrative that is extraordinarily learned in its perceptions and light in its delivery all trademarks of this remarkable writer s work.

The Dog And I

From Canada’s beloved award winning journalist and bestselling author comes a collection of essays, new and previously published, on man s best friend. In the course of 20 years of column writing about everything from politics to hockey and everything in between, Roy MacGregor has learned firsthand that the columns with the greatest reader impact have been those about the family dog. Roy has collected these columns and written many more on everything from puppy love to the sorrow of losing a pet, as experienced by Roy and the dogs he s known and loved.

Northern Light

Roy MacGregor’s lifelong fascination with Tom Thomson first led him to write Canoe Lake, a novel inspired by a distant relative’s affair with one of Canada’s greatest painters. Now, MacGregor breaks new ground, re examining the mysteries of Thomson’s life, loves and violent death in the definitive non fiction account. Why does a man who died almost a century ago and painted relatively little still have such a grip on our imagination?The eccentric spinster Winnie Trainor was a fixture of Roy MacGregor’s childhood in Huntsville, Ontario. She was considered too odd to be a truly romantic figure in the eyes of the town, but the locals knew that Canada’s most famous painter had once been in love with her, and that she had never gotten over his untimely death. She kept some paintings he gave her in a six quart basket she’d leave with the neighbours on her rare trips out of town, and in the summers she’d make the trip from her family cottage, where Thomson used to stay, on foot to the graveyard up the hill, where fans of the artist occasionally left bouquets. There she would clear away the flowers. After all, as far as anyone knew, he wasn’t there: she had arranged at his family’s request for him to be exhumed and moved to a cemetery near Owen Sound. As Roy MacGregor’s richly detailed Northern Light reveals, not much is as it seems when it comes to Tom Thomson, the most iconic of Canadian painters. Philandering deadbeat or visionary artist and gentleman, victim of accidental drowning or deliberate murder, the man’s myth has grown to obscure the real view and the answers to the mysteries are finally revealed in these pages.

Wayne Gretzky’s Ghost

The gift book of the year for hockey fans: Roy MacGregor has been called ‘the best hockey writer in the country,’ and we finally have a collection of his very best hockey writing, revised and updated. For nearly 40 years Roy MacGregor has brought hockey, our national sport, alive on the page. From tales of the game’s greats Guy Lafleur, Jean Beliveau, Marcel Dionne to today’s stars Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Daniel and Henrik Sedin, his magazine and newspaper coverage has revealed so much about these and so many other personalities, in moments of promise, victory and defeat. While many of these stories play out on the ice, some of the most compelling take place on the home front Mario Lemieux’s battle against cancer, the many tribulations of Bob Gainey, and MacGregor’s prose shines especially when focused on the human side of a sport defined by superhuman feats of speed, aggression and power. Wayne Gretzky’s Ghost will be a personal book, and also a book of challenging ideas: that Wayne Gretzky, through no fault of his own, was the worst thing to happen to hockey; that CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada has lost sight of what it is; that goaltending has become a position out of all proportion to what was intended. And who could offer a better perspective on the game than a writer who, playing as a youngster, had to face an onrushing phenom from Parry Sound named Bobby Orr, or who spent a year ghostwriting a national newspaper column for the Great One himself? When it comes to hockey, Roy MacGregor has seen and in some cases, done it all.