Where Mountains Meet the Sea commemorates the 125th anniversary of the District of North Vancouver's incorporation as a municipality. Combining hundreds of illustrations with the personal accounts of residents and a lively text, the book presents the story of North Vancouver in all its colour and complexity.

Instead of a conventional chronological narrative, Where Mountains Meet the Sea divides the story of North Vancouver's development into three major parts: 1) the origins of the community, its First Nations residents and the development of its waterfront; 2) the political and cultural evolution of the community; and 3) the development of the mountain resorts and the creation of the many parks which characterize the North Shore.

From the District's auspicious beginnings with the sawmill at Moodyville dominating the industry of Burrard Inlet, through the postwar population boom that saw the municipality evolve from a suburb of Vancouver into a bustling community in its own right, to the District's rich legacy of outdoor recreation, the text, residents' anecdotes and photographs create a vivid portrait of the development of a thriving community.

Each section of the book is richly illustrated in full colour with biographies, eyewitness memories, artifacts from the collection of the North Vancouver Museum and Archives, historic photographs, maps and charts.

Daniel Francis is an historian and the author/editor of more than twenty books, including five for Arsenal Pulp Press: The Imaginary Indian: The Image of the Indian in Canadian Culture , National Dreams: Myth, Memory and Canadian History, LD: Mayor Louis Taylor and the Rise of Vancouver (winner of the City of Vancouver Book Award), Seeing Reds: The Red Scare of 1918-1919, Canada's First War on Terror and Imagining Ourselves: Classics of Canadian Non-Fiction. His other books include A Road for Canada, Red Light Neon: A History of Vancouver's Sex Trade, Copying People: Photographing British Columbia First Nations 1860-1940, The Great Chase: A History of World Whaling, New Beginnings: A Social History of Canada, and the popular Encyclopedia of British Columbia. He is also a regular columnist in Geist magazine, and was shortlisted for Canada's History Pierre Berton Award in 2010. Daniel lives in North Vancouver, BC.

Daniel Francis' profile page

• Winner, BCHF Community History Award