The Company

      The Rise and Fall of the Hudson’s Bay Empire

       by Stephen R. Bown

 Reviewed By Barry Mutter

Stephen Bown has once again written a captivating book. Canadians who are interested in the early development of our country cannot help but to be absorbed by the people who have worked with the Company. The voyageurs and their indigenous partners braved the rigours of a foreboding land to trade and prosper. The mapmakers plotted routes throughout the North and the West. The company officials that controlled the trade in “Rupert’s Land” were multi-faceted. Some were respected and some were despised. The legacy they left still reflects that.

Many Canadians today have yet to witness the marvels of “Rupert’s Land”. Our country is vast and our climate is harsh. The 150 year existence of HBC would not have occurred without the assistance of the original people. They had lived on the land for thousands of years. Raddison, Hearn, Mackenzie, Thompson, Simpson, and all HBC employees relied on  the skill and the bravery of the indigenous tribes. How were they treated? Was the prosperity of the Company shared with its employees? What is the legacy of the corporation we know as the Hudson’s Bay Company? Read this book. It will hold your attention.
 

Follow Barry's monthly book reviews in the Lakefield Herald.
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The Last Viking: The Life of Roald Amundsen

by Stephen R. Bown
Reviewed By Barry Mutter
 

              “ His cheeks are leathery and folded in hard creases, with a fine network of wrinkles spreading out from the corners of a map of all the dog trails hehas run. . . . .It is a face carved in a cliff, the face of a Viking.”   Roald Amundsen was an explorer. He was obsessed with going where no man has gone before. The poles of the Arctic and the Antarctic were his destinations. Stephen Bown has written a biography of Amundsen that reads like an adventure novel. The deprivation, the physical hardship, the extreme elements of weather, and the several brushes with death prevail in the life of Roald. The exhilaration of discovery and the humiliation of human frailty impact the life of Roald Amundsen.

Bown absorbs the reader in the life of his character. You cannot help but to share the emotional highs and lows of Roald Amundsen in Bown’s book. Bown is also releasing his book The Company: The Rise and Fall of the Hudson Bay Company. For readers with a sense of adventure read both books. His writing is gripping and promises to fulfil a readers need for inspiration.
 

Follow Barry's monthly book reviews in the Lakefield Herald.
Sponsored by Happenstance Books & Yarns