"Britsh Columbia Bizarre" is a fascinating and eclectic mix of tales, snippets, historical facts, fancies and misconceptions teased from the history of British Columbia. No one should read this book to obtain a balanced view of the province's history. It ignores the important people and trends that contributed to BC's story, and instead favours the often strange, sometimes wonderful, and frequently insignificant events and people that make this province a storyteller's dream. Amuse yourself with tales of the brothels, bowdy houses and bagnios that existed in every town, the wild camels of Vancouver Island, communists (well, sort of), duels to the death and goose-races. And if that isn't enough, fill your boots with a potpourri of editorial feuds, gamblers and professional hangmen, lepers and lynching, and, let's not forget, angry moose. Sure to delight and surprise, "British Columbia Bizarre" is a wild safari through provincial history that ill confuse your assumptions and tickle your taste for the unusual.

Do you think the smuggling of drugs and people is a new phenomenon in Canada's west? Think again! Between the mid-19th and mid-20th centuries, many daring smugglers carried contraband goods and people into western Canada across the US-Canada border or into BC from Asia. "Smugglers of the West" tells the dramatic tales of the bold criminals who smuggled Chinese immigrants, opium, liquor and a host of commodities ranging from wool to live animals to tobacco. Among them are Boss Harris, the shadowy kingpin whose opium-smuggling empire stretched from Victoria across North America, and King of the Smugglers Larry Kelly, who reputedly tied illegal Chinese immigrants to pig iron so they could be tossed overboard if American patrollers got too close. Rosemary Neering takes readers into a shadowy world where no item was too small and no risk too large for the men and women who carried goods and people clandestinely across the border.

Traveling the roads and highways through the islands, mountains, and plateaus of British Columbia, Rosemary Neering talks to a fascinating cross-section of people in the small towns she visits. In coffee shops, post offices and living rooms, she gathers their stories with the inquisitive ear of the traveler and sets them down with a storyteller's wisdom. When Rosemary Neering talks to former urbanites used to having the world at their door, they feel that life is more complete in places where people don't lock their doors at night and where everyone knows your life better than you do. But in many resource-based communities where the fisheries, forests, and mines are increasingly controlled by large corporations, there is resentment towards urban approaches to rural problems. As she travels, a compelling portrait is formed of a world often hidden to city dwellers. Awards BC Book Prize: 1992 - The Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize Down the Road (winner)