Originally published in 1949, Storm Below tells the story of a fictional Royal Canadian Navy ship and its crew. The adventure unfolds over six days of an escort run across the Atlantic Ocean to Newfoundland during the Second World War. The ship, the HMCS Riverford, is a composite of the vessels, mostly corvettes, that author Hugh Garner served on during his time in the Canadian navy, and the Canadian sailors whose experiences he relates are masterfully drawn from the crewmen he knew during his months at sea.
In his preface to Storm Below, his first novel, Garner says: "It takes all kinds to make a world, and it also takes all kinds to make a war – or fight one after some of the others make it…. They [his characters] are not even ’typical’ sailors, if such exist. All I can say to justify them is that they are drawn in the image of hundreds who made up the Royal Canadian Navy. They do not need an apology – they were out there, and we won."

Hugh Garner (1913-1979) was a Toronto novelist, short story writer and journalist. He published sixteen books during his lifetime, including Hugh Garner's Best Stories , winner of the Governor General's Award for English-language Fiction.
Amy Lavender Harris teaches at York University. She is the author of Imagining Toronto (2010) which was shortlisted for the Gabrielle Roy Prize in Canadian literary criticism.
The Consulting Editor for Ricochet Books is Brian Busby.

Hugh Garner's profile page

Paul Stuewe is the author of The Storms Below: The Turbulent Life and Times of Hugh Garner, which was shortlisted for the City of Toronto Book Award in 1988, and Hugh Garner and His Works (1986). Currently, he is an associate professor of English at Green Mountain College in Vermont.

Paul Stuewe's profile page