"MY WIFE HAS GONE CRAZY - one of the isolated upcoast lightkeepers in this astonishing book writes to his Victoria supervisor. "PLEASE SEND SOMEONE UP HERE AT ONCE."
It could be an incident from any one of many poignant stories which unfold as Don Graham, himself keeper of Vancouver's famous Point Atkinson Light, breaks the lighthouse fraternity's 150-year tradition of silence and exposes life as it really has been lived in and around those prim white-and-red light stations which have made British Columbia's otherwise forbidding coastline a safe place for ships.

Can you imagine wind strong enough to blow away a lightkeeper's cow? It happened at the ill-fated light on exposed Triangle Island, finally abandoned after the storms cost 25 lives. Here are shocking new revelations about the supposed Japanese bombardment of Estevan Light, a pivotal event in Canada's WWII history; a front row view of the most notorious wrecks along Vancouver Island's "Pacific Graveyard"; stories of absurd and fatal government bungling; stories of suicide, murder, mysterious disappearance, heroism, starvation and occasionally, happiness.

Keepers of the Light is the definitive book on coast lightkeeping maritime history buffs have been waiting for, the result of 40 years' research by Capt. L. Cadieux, founder of the Maritime Museum of Victoria. A further ten years research and writing was dedicated by lightkeeper Graham, a former University history lecturer who had editorial help from both Farley Mowat and Silver Donald Cameron in making this one of the most gripping sagas ever to be written about the west coast.

With spectacular full-colour covers painted by the celebrated lighthouse artist Buzz Walker and 200 drawings, photos, maps and plans in an attractive pictorial format, Keepers of the Light is as handsome as it is exciting to read.

Donald Graham is the former keeper of the Port Atkinson Lighthouse.
Ian Mulgrew
Vancouver Sun
Friday, October 10, 2003
Not long after dawn Wednesday, leaden sheets of rain marching across the chop off Point Atkinson, the last keeper of the light that heralds Vancouver died.

A keeper for 17 years at the landmark red and white tower at the treacherous confluence of Howe Sound and Burrard Inlet, and much, much more, Don Graham succumbed within sight of the seascape to which he devoted so much of his life.

With family and friends at his side, the 56-year-old considered the foremost authority on B.C. lighthouses had battled pancreatic cancer for several months.

The author of two perennial favourite and acclaimed books -- Keepers of the Light and Lights of the Inside Passage -- Graham was a recognized community and political activist who toiled for peace, more compassionate government, and the environment.

Donald Graham's profile page