Toronto: The ROM Report

I gave a talk in the auditorium in the Royal Ontario Museum.

Don Harron told me the night before that he had opened that very auditorium

in 1946 playing the lead in J.M. Synge’s Playboy of the Western World.

Now look at what the old lady has turned into.

After the talk, we all had lunch in the splendid environment of the ROM

restaurant: L to R — Me, Marion (Lynda’s Friend), Lynda and Harry Boyd,

Devon Pool, the Head of PR for McArthur, and Joan.

Vancouver Notes

sty Vancouver was wild and fun. I even sold a book to my taxi driver, and the distinguished Prof Geoff Madoc Jones, in charge of SFU’s MA and PhD programs bought two for a start, and is bringing me back to lecture next year.

From Simon Frazer University to Vancouver’s leading producer, Randy Cheveldave seen here with wife Christine in their lovely garden.

They also gave me a splendid dinner party...

...to sell the book to the elite of West Coast filmakers: great director Terry Ingram and screen writer Michael Thoma, Christine front and centre and on the left, Timothy Porteous, right-hand to PM Trudeau and later head of Canada Council.

Next, off on Air Canada, which now has sleeper seats on its run from Vancouver. Bravo AC! Next stop, Tronna!

Victoria

Land Ahoy! But it’s not the Gaspe.

And this is not the Bellerophon.

Victoria Island at last. Are the natives friendly?

These ones from the Victoria Writer’s Group certainly are.

Next stop: St. Michael’s University School to talk to the young savages.

Then sign The Deserter for older savages at Munro’s Books.

And so to bed in the Big Chief’s wigwam: the ineffable and handsome diplomat Nicholas Etheridge. Over his long career in the Canadian Foreign Service, he has travelled to many lands and supervised many younger diplomats. His home perches on a hill just above St Michael's University School, where he attended as a young fellow, and where I shot the motion picture Ups & Downs. Here's my bedroom.