Phil Jenkins Livres

"An Acre of Time is the history of one acre of LeBreton Flats in Ottawa, Canada. It is about the way land becomes territory, territory becomes property, and property becomes real estate. It’s about the process by which man alters the place he inhabits. By taking a single acre of Canada and examining it in unexpected ways, Jenkins has produced a highly original celebration of place, a book at once eclectic, invaluable, and unique. In this strikingly inventive book, he stakes that acre and recounts the story of its life. He rides a glass elevator up from the earth’s core, describing the geological strata he passes through before reaching the surface. He watches the land submerge beneath salt water that rises as high as the tallest Ottawa skyscraper, a place where 10,000 years ago beluga whales cavorted. He climbs a pine tree and sees Samuel de Champlain paddle up the Ottawa River, intent on converting the native Algonquins and claiming the acre for France. He walks down Duke Street in the early nineteen hundreds and reports on the desolate acre of today, studying its endangered flora, fauna and future. The acre was part of the land expropriated by the National Capital Commission in the 1960s. Buildings were bulldozed, lives transplanted, and a huge government complex was envisioned. Excerpt: 'I’ve come here from my home in those hills to unearth a story, a rolling tale of lava and glaciers, of tropical seas and waterfalls, of whales and white-tailed deer, of Indians and pioneers, millionaires and paupers, firestorms and bulldozers, railways and lumber mills, facts and gossip. It’s the story, the biography, of the field beneath my feet. Every story has its borders; the borders of this story are the four sides of the acre I’m standing on, a single page from the book of land.'"-- Provided by publisher

"Where is Ottawa’s oldest street? What 19th-century architect designed much of the Glebe? In which Ottawa neighbourhood can you find Nanny Goat Hill, the civic address of the former Grads Tavern, and a Franciscan seminary? Take a history walk with author, musician, and journalist Phil Jenkins to find the answers. Along the way get an almost block-by-block retelling of Ottawa’s history. Curated from a quarter-century of columns written for the Ottawa Citizen, As I Walked About is Jenkins fifth non-fiction book, and a worthy successor in tone and spirit to his previous bestsellers An Acre of Time and River Song. This book is a loving tribute to a city and it begins with an epigraph: A city is a book we learn to read by walking it. When readers have finished the rollicking, foot-trip stories inside As I Walked About, they will indeed have learned much about Ottawa. And thanks to Jenkins -- their curious and irreverent fellow walker and tour guide -- they will have chuckled and stared in amazement for much of the journey."-- Provided by publisher