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Barrie Doyle and I are having our second annual lunch at Flynn’s Traditional Irish Pub on the corner of Main and Robert streets in Penetanguishene.
I remember the place from the 1950s when it was the Toronto Dominion Bank, its liquid assets then somewhat different than they are today.
We are each working our way through a Blarney Burger. Fried egg, Irish rasher, cheddar and Flynn’s sauce — an Irish breakfast on a bun.
Barrie is an old Toronto Telegram hand, coming to the paper in the 60s just about the time I left. He was with the Toronto Star in Washington during the Nixon years, and went on to public relations and teaching.
He is now retired (although that is hardly the word for someone who has just recently turned out three successful novels) and living at Balm Beach.
Ebullient, full of good humour and good nature, interested in everything from travel, to journalism, to politics, he is the ideal lunch companion.
We share a lot in common, including our alma mater (Ryerson) and our Welsh/Irish heritage.
His most recent novel, The Prince Madoc Secret, was to be the third of a trilogy, The Oak Grove Conspiracies, but his fans are demanding another book, so the trilogy is evolving into a series.
The books span time and place, from the 12th century to the 21st, from Wales to Istanbul, the United States, Canada, and a myriad of places in between.
They are full of action and intrigue, with heroes turned villains, and villains heroes.
These days, authors are not only expected to write books, but to market them as well, and Barrie has been on the road a lot lately doing exactly that — Mississauga, Alexandria, Virginia, Washington, D.C.
This Saturday afternoon (Sept. 29) he will be at Chapters in Peterborough. He will probably have with him a four-foot replica of a 700 AD broadsword.
It is a great prop.
But he has learned that he can’t take it everywhere.
“I think it is better that I leave it at home when I am going into the States these days,” he says, taking another bite of his Blarney Burger.
Sylvia Sutherland is a journalist and was Peterborough’s mayor from 1985 to 1991 and from 2007 to 2016.
valleys, most notably the book, later a film “How Green was my Valley.” The coalmines closed—the last one in the early 90’s. The area became woefully depressed and poverty and joblessness was too often the norm.
It is an area of resourceful people. Tough people. Caring people. It is an area of great beauty. Steep valley sides are dotted with rows of stone miners’ cottages climbing up the valley as it gets narrower and narrower. Once huge piles of coal slag are now emerging as green landscapes because of regeneration projects. Rivers flow. Trees grow. People who once looked out on scarred, coal smoked visages now enjoy verdant green settings and new forests emerging.
presence; you cannot get tired of London because you cannot explore all the city has to offer—history, architecture, art, culture, dining, diversity, markets, business, parks, pageantry—and a whole lot more.
The Houses of Parliament rise majestically on the banks of the Thames River (if you go, the best view is from the London Eye across the river) and has been the target of numerous terrorist attacks from the days of Guy Fawkes who tried to blow up Parliament (1605) through to the attacks in 2017.
London is such a magnet that the “real London” often merges in the mind with the fictional London from the thousands of books set in the city or the thousands of movies and television programmes that have been shot on its streets. Baker Street is real—but also, at 221b, the home of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. Notting Hill is a real village in the heart of the city, but also where Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant met in a bookstore. The list goes on.
St.–the main shopping streets/ But don’t miss out on the smaller sites. Try Petticoat Lane or Portobello Road. Or go to the Borough Market, Spitalfields Market and Covent Garden. Are shows your thing? The West End theatres feature top hit shows and lesser-known—but equally enjoyable—productions. Don’t miss Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap, for example, which opened in 1952 and has run continuously ever since to packed houses.
Seeking peace and quiet? How about the many parks where you can rent a deck chair and relax surrounded by green and away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Hyde Park, Green Park, St. James Park, Regents Park, Hampstead Heath—all free and all inviting.
churches along the coastline, killing all the monks and sacking nearby villages and enslaving its inhabitants.
In The Prince Madoc Secret, the Cathedral plays a key role. But I postulate that, at the critical time in the novel, the Church and the cultural community have gathered to create a special memorial place for Welsh writers, artists and musicians might have their own ‘Poet’s Corner’ such as found at Westminster Abbey in London.
