Helen Humphreys Book order

And A Dog called Fig is a study of how animals help writers deal with the challenges of the creative process, insterspersing the author's own experience with stories of other famous writers and their dogs

In Field Study, award-winning author Helen Humphreys returns to her brilliant illustrated meditations, this time to delve into the lost world of herbarium collections to examine where and how we look to find the solace of nature in a declining natural world.

A lonely boy in a prairie town befriends a local outsider in 1947 and then witnesses a shocking murder. Based on a true story. Canwood, Saskatchewan, 1947. Leonard Flint, a lonely boy in a small farming town befriends the local outsider, a man known as Rabbit Foot Bill. Bill doesn't talk much, but he allows Leonard to accompany him as he sets rabbit snares and to visit his small, secluded dwelling. Being with Bill is everything to young Leonard--an escape from school, bullies and a hard father. So his shock is absolute when he witnesses Bill commit a sudden violent act and loses him to prison. Fifteen years on, as a newly graduated doctor of psychiatry, Leonard arrives at the Weyburn Mental Hospital, both excited and intimidated by the massive institution known for its experimental LSD trials. To Leonard's great surprise, at the Weyburn he is reunited with Bill and soon becomes fixated on discovering what happened on that fateful day in 1947. Based on a true story, this page-turning novel from a master stylist examines the frailty and resilience of the human mind.

We tend to look at landscape in relation to what it can do for us. Does it move us with its beauty? Can we make a living from it? But what if we examined a landscape on its own terms, freed from our expectations and assumptions?This is what celebrated writer Helen Humphreys sets out to do in this stunning, groundbreaking examination of place. For more than a decade Humphreys has owned a small waterside property on a section of the Napanee River in Ontario. In the watchful way of writers, she has studied her little piece of the river through the seasons and the years, cataloguing its ebb and flows, the plants and creatures that live in and round it, the signs of human usage at its banks and on its bottom.The River is the result, a gorgeous and moving meditation that uses fiction, non-fiction, natural history, archival maps and images, and stunning full-color photographs to get at the truth. In doing this, Humphreys has created a work of startling originality that is sure to become a new Canadian classic.

Shot down on his first RAF mission, James Hunter spends his war in a German prison camp. The other captive soldiers busy themselves planning their escapes, but James dedicates himself to a detailed study of the redstarts nesting just beyond the camp boundaries - a project that gives him something to live for and earns him an unusual ally in the Kommandant in charge of the camp.Rose, James's young wife, is spending her war in a cottage on the lip of Ashdown Forest in Sussex, with her dog Harris for company. She'd hardly known James before he went away and can barely engage with his letters, which talk of nothing but birds. Now she has fallen in love with someone else - Toby, a young pilot home on sick leave. They meet secretly at night.Then James's brusque sister Enid is bombed out of her flat in London and comes to live in Rose's tiny cottage. Little more than strangers, both women are guarded, and Rose tries to conceal her affair from Enid. But later both look back on this strange interlude as one of their happiest.Beautifully written and full of moments of hope, The Evening Chorus is a stirring story about love and the natural world, set against the backdrop of the Second World War.

When Charles meets Victor Hugo, he is captivated by the writer and drawn into a world of intense emotions where the pen becomes a sword. However, their friendship is short-lived as Charles soon turns his attention to another person: Adele, Victor Hugo's wife.

In its long history, the river Thames has frozen solid forty times. These are the stories of that frozen river.

Set against the backdrop of the Luftwaffe's bombing of Coventry on November 14, 1940, the narrative explores the intertwining lives of Harriet Marsh, a fire watcher named Jeremy, and his mother Maeve, an artist. As they confront the horrors of war, the story delves into themes of resilience, compassion, and the enduring impact of trauma. Through their experiences, the book highlights the strength of the human spirit amidst devastation, ultimately offering a message of hope and transformation in the face of adversity.

The narrative explores the profound bond between Willa, a novice flyer, and Grace, a celebrated aviator, as they pursue their passion for flight amidst the challenges of their time. Their journey of friendship unfolds against a backdrop of rising anti-Semitism, impacting Maddy, a young admirer of Grace, and her Jewish family. With Maddy's mother facing violent threats due to her heritage, the story weaves together themes of courage, aspiration, and the harsh realities of societal prejudice, creating a poignant contrast between dreams and danger.