For about 12 years now, the majority of my days have been spent sitting at my writing desk, creating sentences, hemmed in by a fortress of books on sailing ships & shipwrecks, the British Royal Navy and the naval War of 1812, listening to the movie scores of Master & Commander and Pride & Prejudice (among others) that transport me back in time to a world that has long since passed away, and help me to imagine lives that were once played out on the high seas.  

November 11, 2018 is the 100th Anniversary of Armistice Day, marking the end of the First World War. It was also one hundred years ago that my grandfather’s life was saved on the battlefields of France by his younger brother, Jack.

It seems like ancient history now – but I knew my beloved grandfather Charles Light very well, since he lived into my adulthood.

When the First World War began in 1914, Canada was only forty-seven years old. Its people were largely of English, Irish, or Scottish descent, either having been born there or having parents who had been.