Well, missed by a couple of days.
I blame the heat 😎
Here are two book suggestions for you to enjoy.
Victorian Society of Alberta
The Promised Land: Settling the West 1896-1914
by Pierre Berton
After the pioneers described in The National Dream, The Last Spike and Klondike came the settlers — a million people who filled a thousand miles of prairie in a single generation.
From GoodReads
"A
book that has moved me to tears time and again. (I suspect because I'm
descended from some of the peoples described in this book and my
hometown of Brandon is featured prominently.) This is Burton's epic of
immigration, what would become one of the great defining characteristics
of Canada. The seeds of our multicultural nation are explored, as is
the start of what we think of as Western Canadian culture. We follow the
stories of several people through the era, from impoverished immigrants
to powerful politicians. Most fascinatingly, Clifford Sifton, once one
of the most powerful men in the country, who is now no more than a
footnote to history. Burton tells the story of the people of the West in
a way that never fails to captivate.
"This is my favourite of
Burton's, and one that I've returned to many times. It reminds me how
lucky modern Canadians are to live in the nation that these settlers
built as well as the importance of keeping our culture of
multiculturalism. (Which I know may not make sense to non-Canadians, but
that seemingly contradictory notion is one of the best things about our
country, to me at least.)"
Dangerous Days on the Victorian Railways: Feuds, Frauds, Robberies and Riots
by Terry Deary
Facing feuds and frauds, robberies and riots and the disasters of
dangerous drivers, deadly designers and sleepy signalmen, Victorians
risked more than just delays when stepping on a steam train.
Victorian
inventors certainly didn't lack steam, but squabbling over who deserved
the title of 'The Father of the Locomotive' and busy enjoying their
fame and fortune, safety on the rails was not their priority. Brakes
were seen as a needless luxury (until a steamer started to slide
downhill towards disaster) and boilers had an inconvenient tendency to
overheat and explode, and in turn, blow up anyone in reach.
Four
years after a mysterious murderer left only his victim's crushed hat and
walking stick on board a first class carriage, the nation trembled at
the trains once more. Poorly timed repairs caused a locomotive to derail
and crash into the shallow River Beult, killing ten passengers and
injuring 40 more. The infamous Staplehurst disaster is said to have
traumatised passenger Charles Dickens, threatening to expose his affair
with the young Nell Ternan, and altering his health and writing for the
rest of his life.
Often recognised as having revolutionised
travel and industrial Britain, Victorian railways were perilous. Few
other histories honour the lives of the people killed or injured by the
diseases and disasters which accounted for thousands of deaths. The
victims of the Victorian railways had names, lives and families, and
they deserve to be remembered.
