Canada From Afar is the fruit of the remarkable flowering of obituary writing in the London Daily Telegraph during the past ten years. These lively portraits of Canadians are informed, witty, sometimes quirky, occasionally iconoclastic.They include royal courtiers, politicians, businessmen, soldiers, sailors, airmen, scientists, explorers, novelists, artists, and even journalists. Among the prominent Canadians viewed from afar are persons such as Margaret Laurence, Joey Smallwood, K.C. Irving, Raymond Burr and A.J. Casson.

David Twiston-Davies is the Chief Obituary Writer of The Daily Telegraph, for which he has worked for almost 40 years. Born in Montreal, he was educated at Downside before taking jobs with the East Anglian Daily Times and the Winnipeg Free Press.

David Twiston-Davies' profile page

Conrad Black is the author of widely acclaimed biographies of Maurice Duplessis, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Richard Nixon. He was for many years the head of the Argus, Hollinger, and Telegraph Newspaper groups. Black is a financier, and a columnist in the National Post, which he founded, and the National Review Online. He is also the author of Rise to Greatness, a best-selling history of Canada, and has been a member of the British House of Lords since 2001. He lives in Toronto.

Conrad Black's profile page

"Brief lives and their incidents are the single tiles with which the great mosaic of history is made ... A later generation can try to assemble the grand mosaic. For now, it is enough to enjoy the tiles one by one."

Winnipeg Free Press

"Scruples too, of course, to contemplate the riddles of a life and the puzzles of a personality ... as Twiston Davies shows in his Canada collection, the quality press is on to something here."

The Weekly Telegraph

"... this book ... because of its absorbing nature and ultimate usefulness, should enjoy considerable success."

Christy McCormick

"Canada From Afar is a delightful celebration of life and death. The only regret is that the reader puts it down wishing he had known most, if not quite all, of the people in it."

Richard Mullen