With all the passion and forward thrust of a terrific novel, The Company Store is John Mellor's winning story of Labour’s Wars in Cape Breton Island. A much sought after book, it has been too long out of print, and it remains a good place for the general reader to start in digging into this essential story in the making of the character of industrial Cape Breton. The company store itself stands as a powerful symbol for the entire system against which the miners fought—a system wherein the company owned the mines, the homes, the stores and often even the ministers and priests—all with the goal of profits for shareholders and of keeping the workers indebted and in line.  And when all these failed, the governments sent in the troops against the workers!

John Mellor was a volunteer with the British Naval Commandos - on the beach in the Dieppe Raid and at Normandy on D-Day. He carried shrapnel from Dieppe the rest of his life. He was a sailor with the Royal Navy until 1953, then had a varied career as electrical engineer, high school teacher and freelance writer. His first book, Dieppe: Canada's Forgotten Heroes, took the prestigious Canadian Authors' Association Award for Literary Excellence and the Canadian Non-Fiction Award.

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