Sep

Book Review: The Enchanted April

Anyone looking for an uplifting, transporting novel would enjoy reading Elizabeth von Arnim’s 1922 novel The Enchanted April. It tells the story of four very different women, who wish to escape rainy London. So each separately replies to a newspaper notice advertising a medieval castle on the sunny Italian Riviera, available for rent during the month of April. The foursome includes the saintly Mrs. Arbuthnot, the unkempt Mrs. Wilkins, jaded Lady Caroline, and the formidable widow, Mrs. Fisher. They all feel dissatisfied with their lives. The first two middle-class ladies soon discover they both have unappreciative husbands and become friends. However, the others keep to themselves. Eventually, though, the sea, the sun, and the abundant flowers work their magic, and they all come to love one another, and discover joy again in their personal lives. The best thing about the book is the the brilliant interaction between the four very different but engaging main characters.

—Deborah Viets

Note: A condensed version of this review appeared in The Globe and Mail’s “What I’m Reading” section on September 5th, 2026.

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Books

Oct

Canada’s Sweet Rebellion: Spending on Laura Secord

When I was growing up in Ottawa during the mid-1960s and early 70s, back-to-school shopping was accompanied by what became a family tradition. After we’d scoured the St. Laurent Shopping Centre for my new clothes, including such wardrobe staples as a navy blue polka-dotted mini-skirt and corduroy bell bottoms—which came from the department stores Simpsons Sears and Freiman’s—my mother would take me to Laura Secord. There, amid the store’s shelves and counters studded with chocolate, candies, and fudge, I would spend my allowance on butterscotch and cherry Kiddy Pops. My mum always bought herself a milk chocolate bar, the iconic French mint.

Although Laura Secord is no longer a shopping-mall staple, patriotic Canadians with a sweet tooth should consider seeking out the brand, which has endured for more than 110 years. For those who wish to support our country in the U.S. tariff war, the choice is particularly apt—especially if you know our nation’s history. Most of us are familiar with the name Laura Secord for reasons beyond quality chocolate. As schoolchildren, many Canadians learned the important role Secord played during the War of 1812, and how, in June 1813, she trekked 20 miles through dangerous territory to warn the British of an impending American attack, helping to repel their invasion of Upper Canada. Her message was relayed to an allied force of Indigenous warriors from Quebec, who ambushed U.S. troops at the Battle of Beaver Dams. Secord was thirty-seven at the time, and mother to seven children.

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Laura Secord/Memoir

family/women

Mar

An Act of Nostalgia: Revisiting Winnie-the-Pooh as a Grown-Up

As an escape from all the bad news happening around the world—namely, global wars, climate change disasters, and the affordability crisis—I recently decided to revisit A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh, a childhood book I remember with particular fondness. My godfather gave me a beautiful hardcover edition, with E. H. Shepard’s wonderful colour illustrations, for my seventh birthday, in 1967. I could read by this time, but my younger brother and sister couldn’t. So my dad read it aloud to us at bedtime, sitting in an armchair while the three of us lay on my sister’s bed. Being a fun and imaginative man, my father used different voices for each of the seven anthropomorphic animals and Christopher Robin, bringing the book to life.

My favourite characters were the good-natured, honey-loving Pooh and the wryly melancholic old grey donkey, Eeyore. So the chapter I loved the most was Chapter Six, “In Which Eeyore Has a Birthday and Gets Two Presents,” as these two figure prominently in it. Another reason I liked this one so much is that when Eeyore tells Pooh it’s his birthday, he says, “Many happy returns of the day,” which is how my father always greeted me. (My birthday was the happiest day of the year, other than Christmas. Like many privileged young children, I received several gifts from my parents then, and I looked forward to getting even more from my school friends at my birthday party.)

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Winnie-the-Pooh

Jun

Cottage Time

The Globe and Mail (Ontario Edition)
May 23, 2024

Re “Sitting on the dock of the bay, wasting time? Not in this family” (Opinion, May 18): This made me feel very lazy.

The family cottage that my sister, brother and I share in the Gatineau comes equipped with all manner of creature comforts: a bathroom with a shower, an electric oven, a dishwasher, laundry facilities.

However, when we were growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, we lacked the latter two amenities, which meant going into town to use a laundromat. My late father resisted getting a dishwasher, maintaining that if each of us did their own dishes, it would be unnecessary. But my willful mother, who was a hardworking doctor with little time for chores, insisted on getting one.

She ultimately prevailed, and even posted a sign above the dishwasher that said: “This is an equal opportunity kitchen.”

Deborah Viets, Toronto

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Memoir

Mar

Second-hand Prose: A Field Guide

In this era of big box bookstores, it’s becoming harder to find shops that offer more than row after row of the latest best-sellers and recent releases. Fortunately, relief from this monotonous sameness can be found in Toronto’s second-hand bookshops, where the standard of what’s interesting and relevant encompasses the past as well as the present.

The best second-hand stores carry fine volumes of mixed vintage, displayed in inviting surroundings. While wandering their aisles, readers may happen upon out-of-print books that demand to be read as well as gems they didn’t know existed. It’s this possibility of discovery, coupled with the prospect of bargain buys, that makes browsing in these stores so exhilarating.

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7 years ago Short URL Comments

Books/Retail

Conrad Black/second-hand bookstores/Toronto

Feb

Why Ladies Go A-Thieving

Winona Ryder surely didn’t need those clothes she’s accused of stealing. She could be facing three years in jail. DEBORAH VIETS reports.

What do Winona Ryder, Rex Reed and Hedy Lamarr have in common? If you said tinseltown, close but no cigar. The correct answer might be sticky fingers.

Ms. Ryder is accused of using the five-finger discount during a bizarre shopping spree last Christmas. According to Beverly Hills police, the Hollywood star cut off security tags from $4,700 (U.S.) worth of women’s clothes at Saks Fifth Avenue, then walked out of the store without paying for them.

She entered a not guilty plea in response to the charges, but the judge ruled there is enough evidence for her to stand trial. The highly publicized and long-postponed trial finally began on Tuesday. If convicted, Ms. Ryder faces a three-year prison sentence.

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7 years ago Short URL Comments

Retail

celebrities/shoplifting/women

Feb

The Love That Dared Wag Its Tail

Like many dog lovers, my father was a reluctant master who let his pets have the upper hand and turned a blind eye to their faults.

This arrangement suited his favourite dog, Chester, a magnificent golden retriever. Chester was friendly and curious, with a keen zest for life, but he also had a dominant streak, which meant he could be disobedient and aggressive with other dogs.

From my father’s perspective, though, his best friend could do no wrong. I once overheard him telling his cousin Geoff, a retired CEO, “Audrey and the children think Chester’s disobedient, but he’s not. He comes when you call him – most of the time.”

“I see,” said Geoff.

“It’s not that he tries to be captain of the ship. He just is.”

“A born leader.”

“That’s right,” my father replied without a trace of irony.

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7 years ago Short URL Comments

Dogs

diplomacy/dogs/family

Dec

At Toronto’s Dog Day Care Centres the Play’s the Thing

As a dog lover who currently finds herself dogless, I am always looking for excuses to expand my circle of canine acquaintances and my repertoire of shaggy tales. The perfect opportunity presents itself when I learn that two people I know have enrolled their pets in day-care centres, of which there are two in downtown Toronto, namely, Dogs’ Paradise and the Tire Biter Depot. My friend Linda takes Thomas, her two-year-old golden lab, to the former twice a week to be de-energized; Ian, a friend of a friend, sends his lab, Lucy, to the Depot every day because he feels she needs company while he is at the office. I call Linda and Ian to see if I can accompany their charges to day care. They are both willing.

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7 years ago Short URL Comments

Dogs

Nov

The Dog in the Hat: A Christmas Story

My father is the impossible-to-shop-for member of my family, but this Christmas the gift he has been dreaming of for years will await him under the tree.

Although my mother may find its scent pas à son goût, for him it will evoke Proustian memories redolent of happy days spent in the company of his friend, Chester. Sadly, Chester died of cancer suddenly the summer before last, leaving dad devastated. His friend was not human, but he might as well have been: My father can distinguish between a person and a dog—in this instance it was a golden retriever—but he chooses to ignore the difference.

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7 years ago Short URL Comments

Dogs

Christmas/dogs/fur

Mar

A Different Kind of Chocolate Soldier

There’s something liberating about an occasion like Halloween that encourages children to take candy from strangers, as has been noted. But there’s something strange about taking candy from an armed soldier.

That was the prospect I faced as a 10-year-old living in Ottawa’s Rockcliffe Park during the fall of 1970. The October Crisis had reached its height. In response to the FLQ kidnappings of British trade commissioner James Cross and Quebec labour minister Pierre Laporte, who was ultimately murdered, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau had imposed the controversial War Measures Act and dispatched soldiers to guard the many diplomats, cabinet ministers and other notables with homes in our area. I had gleaned this much from my parents’ discussions of the newspaper headlines.

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8 years ago Short URL Comments

Memoir