From Captain George Vancouver to Muriel "Curve of Time" Blanchet to Jim "Spilsbury's Coast" Spilsbury, visitors to Desolation Sound have left behind a trail of books endowing the area with a romantic aura that helps to make it British Columbia's most popular marine park. In this hilarious and captivating book, CBC personality Grant Lawrence adds a whole new chapter to the saga of this storied piece of BC coastline.

Young Grant's father bought a piece of land next to the park in the 1970s, just in time to encounter the gun-toting cougar lady, left-over hippies, outlaw bikers and an assortment of other characters. In those years Desolation Sound was a place where going to the neighbours' potluck meant being met with hugs from portly naked hippies and where Russell the Hermit's school of life (boating, fishing, and rock 'n' roll) was Grant's personal Enlightenment—an influence that would take him away from the coast to a life of music and journalism and eventually back again.

With rock band buddies and a few cases of beer in tow, an older, cooler Grant returns to regale us with tales of "going bush," the tempting dilemma of finding an unguarded grow-op, and his awkward struggle to convince a couple of visiting kayakers that he's a legit CBC radio host while sporting a wild beard and body wounds and gesticulating with a machete. With plenty of laugh-out-loud humour and inspired reverence, Adventures in Solitude delights us with the unique history of a place and the growth of a young man amidst the magic of Desolation Sound.

Grant Lawrence is an award-winning author, CBC personality, singer, columnist and live event host. He is the author of three best-selling books for adults: Adventures in Solitude (2010), The Lonely End of the Rink (2013), and Dirty Windshields (2017). Bailey the Bat and the Tangled Moose, his first children's picture book, was released in 2021. Grant Lawrence is the first author in the history of the BC Book Prizes to win the Bill Duthie Booksellers Choice twice. Grant is also the host of the CBC Music Top 20, the lead singer of The Smugglers, a Canadian Screen Award winner, and a columnist for the North Shore News and Powell River Peak. He is also a goalie for the Vancouver Flying Vees beer league hockey team. Grant Lawrence is married to musician Jill Barber and they live in Vancouver with their two children, Josh and Grace. Return to Solitude is Grant's long-awaited sequel to Adventures in Solitude.

Grant Lawrence's profile page

• Short-listed, Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction
• Short-listed, Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize--BC Book Prize
• Winner, Bill Duthie Booksellers' Choice Award--BC Book Prize
• Short-listed, Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction