Ghost towns looming silently out of the fog, villages torn apart by storms, forest fires fought with "flying boats" as big as jetliners, the Chilcotin War, grizzlies and sasquatches, life in a float camp tethered to a rocky shore - this is Raincoast Chronicles Eleven Up. The book comprises numbers 11-15 of the Chronicles, and about 35 pages of new stories., articles, yams and coast lore.

Back in 1972, the first issue of Raincoast Chronicles caused a publishing sensation. Here was West Coast history not as a footnote to something bigger-and-better from back east, but as the voice of a distinct and powerful culture. The Chronicles stories of fishermen, lighthouses, gyppo loggers and Native people rang a bell with thousands of coast readers. Raincoast Chronicles First Five was a BC bestseller, and so was Raincoast Chronicles Six-Ten.

The perfect gift for lovers of coast lore or anyone who really wants to know what it's like here, Raincoast Chronicles Eleven Up is a large-format hardcover with over 300 black-and-white photographs. As always in the Chronicles, famous writers appear side by side with first-time authors who have a good story to tell. The award-winning writing of Howard White is well represented here, and there are contributions from Edith Iglauer, Jim Spilsbury, Clayton Mack, Anne Cameron, Peter Trower, Alan Haig-Brown, and a host of others who have made and lived BC coast history.

Howard White was born in 1945 in Abbotsford, British Columbia. He was raised in a series of camps and settlements on the BC coast and never got over it. He is still to be found stuck barnacle-like to the shore at Pender Harbour, BC. He started Raincoast Chronicles and Harbour Publishing in the early 1970s and his own books include A Hard Man to Beat (bio), The Men There Were Then (poems), Spilsbury's Coast (bio), The Accidental Airline (bio), Patrick and the Backhoe (childrens`), Writing in the Rain (anthology) and The Sunshine Coast (travel). He was awarded the Canadian Historical Association's Career Award for Regional History in 1989. In 2000, he completed a ten-year project, The Encyclopedia of British Columbia. He has been awarded the Order of BC, the Canadian Historical Association's Career Award for Regional History, the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, the Jim Douglas Publisher of the Year Award and a Honorary Doctorate of Laws Degree from the University of Victoria. In 2007, White was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. He has twice been runner-up in the Whisky Slough Putty Man Triathlon.

Howard White's profile page

• Winner, Roderick Haig-Brown BC Book Prize