Paul Almond: 10 books

This last novel in the Alford Saga is a stand-alone autobiographical roman a clef about the remarkable life, loves, agonies, achievements and awards of Canada's prestigious movie producer, director, and entrepreneur.

Eric Alford's safe and romantic life on the peaceful Gaspe Coast is shattered by his decision to follow his elder brother John (the Pilgrim and The Chaplain) into the 1914-18 cataclysm of death and destruction known as the "Great War for Civilisation". By his thundering Howitzer, Gunner...

Imagine you’re in a swaying hammock on a British man-o’war around 1800, riding out a harsh spring storm in a deserted estuary. Behind those high red cliffs lie a hundred miles of uncharted wilderness, populated only by ferocious indigenous peoples. If you jump ship and are caught, you will be...

In 1896, young rector Jack Alford is sent to the implacable, granite shores of Labrador on the vast St. Lawrence River. Hazards imperil his life as he travels this harsh 450-mile coastline by boat and dogsled, to visit his far-flung parishioners. Jack also manages to rescue a cook from the crew of...

The Prime Minister gives permission for John Alford to board a tramp steamer crammed with a thousand young enlistees bound for adventure in the Boer War. They steam across a stormy Atlantic into a year of dusty, disease-ridden battles in South Africa - the first engagement by Canadian Forces on foreign...

The riveting Alford Saga continues with James Alford, the Deserter, battling old age and ferocious winters, but even more crippling, the departure of his son and only heir, Young Jim, who sets out on snowshoes for Montreal, seven hundred miles away. Arriving at last in Montreal, Jim is driven by starvation...

Thomas Manning, branded a deserter from the British Navy, is forced to change his name to James Alford to avoid the death penalty. Determined to forge a new life on the Gaspé Peninsula, he struggles to survive the harsh landscape and win the hand of Catherine Garrett. After working in harsh sub-zero...

Eric Alford, one of the brave but shell-shocked soldiers of WWI, sets out during Canada's Great Depression to find his British sweetheart. He ends up in Australia, where he finally wins ordination as a clergyman. After an emotionally fraught round the world trip, he arrives home in Quebec only to...

Thomas Manning, déserteur de la marine britannique, n’existe plus. Sous le nom de James Alford, il est devenu un homme libre. Auprès de ses amis mi’gmaqs, le jeune colon a appris à survivre dans la nature sauvage de la côte gaspésienne, mais il n’est pas tiré d’affaire pour autant. Désormais...

Pour Thomas Manning, finie la vie de servitude. Après une enfance grise passée à l’ombre des murs du Château de Raby, où il travaille comme domestique, le jeune homme quitte famille et patrie pour aller tenter sa chance en Amérique, continent de tous les possibles. Malgré sa peur des animaux...