In this lively autobiography, popular historian Paul O'Neill looks back on his salad days in the 1940s and early 50s. O'Neill's childhood in the small outport of Bay de Verde was filled with 'outharbour delights' while his star-struck teen years were spent in wartime St. John's, a city he grew to love like no other. At nineteen O'Neill left Newfoundland to train as an actor in New York, after which he toured all over America as part of a professional troupe. From there, he went to England, scrambling to make a living on stage and screen and having the time of his life. At twenty-three, he returned to Canada's newest province for a visit, but instead landed what turned out to be a lifelong job writing and producing television programs for CBC. This charming and enthusiastic memoir brings back the music, the movies and the mores of that era.

Writer, actor, community activist and CBC producer, Paul O'Neill was born in St. John's, Newfoundland in 1928. Educated at St. Bonaventure's College in St. John's and the National Academy of Theater Arts in New York, O'Neill was an aspiring actor in the United States and England from 1949-1952, where he worked with well-known names such as Cloris Leachman and Eddie Albert. He began his career in radio in 1953 with the CBC in Newfoundland where he produced many radio shows and TV shows such as Reach for the Top, Skipper and Company and Music Craft, before retiring in 1986. O'Neill has written several books on Newfoundland history including, Breakers (1982), Legends of the Lost Tribe (1976) and The Oldest City (1975). In addition to his contributions on Newfoundland history O'Neill wrote a Spindrift and Morning Light- 1968, A Sound of Seagulls (1984), Upon This Rock, the story of the Roman Catholic Church in Newfoundland and Labrador (1984). He has served as the founding president of the Newfoundland Writers' Guild, chairman of the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council and president of the St. John's Folk Arts Council. In 1988, O'Neill was awarded an honorary LL.D by Memorial University of Newfoundland and in 1990, he was appointed to the Order of Canada. In 2004, he was awarded the Freedom of the City and in 2008, received Order of Newfoundland and Labrador. Paul O'Neill wrote his memoirs during the last years of his life. He passed away on August 13, 2013.

Paul O'Neill's profile page

Edward Roberts has been involved in public life in Newfoundland and Labrador for fifty-five years, as a journalist, lawyer, and politician. He was a member of the House of Assembly for twenty-three years and served as Newfoundland and Labrador’s lieutenant governor between 2002 and 2008. He was honorary colonel of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment from 2003 to 2008, thus re-establishing the link between that office and that of the lieutenant governor, the Queen’s personal representative in Newfoundland and Labrador. He has long been passionately interested in the history of Newfoundland and her people. His first book, as editor, Peter Cashin: My Fight for Newfoundland (2012), was a Globe and Mail bestseller.

Edward Roberts' profile page