Vili Racz, my extraordinary grandfather and the storyteller of my childhood, in his First World War uniform.
Vili Racz, my extraordinary grandfather and the storyteller of my childhood, in his First World War uniform.
On the catwalk modelling a dressing gown for a New Zealand department store—one of the many jobs I took to support myself through university.
My grandmother Therese, my mother’s dog, and me in our old house in Budapest, just before we were moved to a small apartment on the other side of the Danube.
Margaret Atwood in 1969, around the time we first met.
Graeme Gibson paddling a canoe, sometime in the early seventies when we began our long friendship.
Between Peter C. Newman (left) and Pierre Berton at a McClelland& Stewart event for authors and booksellers.
Artist Harold Town outside the Art Gallery of Ontario in 1969, around the time we were assembling his book, Drawings.
One of my first jobs at McClelland & Stewart was to print, collect, and box copies of Scott Symons’s controversial Civic Square. Here he is in 1979.
Al Purdy at his A–frame on Roblin Lake, in Prince Edward County.
The young novelist Matt Cohen at about the time we first met. We remained friends for more than thirty years.
Julian and me on our snowy wedding day.
Sylvia Fraser with her goddaughter, my daughter Catherine, in 1973.
My mother, Maria (Puci), in 1986, as beautiful as she was when we left Hungary.
The magnificent Irving Layton with Isabel Bassett at one of our many book launch parties.
With my two daughters, Catherine and Julia.
The remarkable Earle Birney—poet, teacher, mountain climber, adventurer, lover, novelist.
Jack McClelland in his usual pose at the office: feet on desk, cigarette in hand, phone at the ready.
Laughing with Mordecai Richler at a McClelland & Stewart party.
Farley Mowat, the ultimate storyteller.
Margaret Trudeau at around the time Seal Books published her bestselling memoir, Consequences.
Aritha van Herk and Jack McClelland (centre) on a platform in front of her giant $50,000 cheque for winning the inaugural Seal Books First Novel Award for her novel Judith in 1978.
At a Seal Books party with Bantam Books’ Alun Davies.
With John Irwin, publisher of Hidden Agenda, and Janet Turnbull at the subway station in Toronto where my first mystery begins.
I first met the legendary Leonard Cohen in 1972, when he was not yet a legend.