A work in progress
VANDELEUR
Sexual hypocrisy, religious prejudice, and
ethnic discrimination form the background of Vandeleur, Ray Argyle's upcoming novel of Victorian Canada in which a disgruntled
newspaperman must face the realization that his biased reporting and his low sense of self-worth may have contributed to a grave miscarriage
of justice.
Leonard Babington returns to his hometown of Vandeleur in the “Queen’s Bush” of Grey County to take over the Vandeleur
Chronicle after having been wrongfully accused of complicity in the shooting death of Toronto Globe publisher George Brown. His former
sweetheart Rosannah Leppard is poisoned and her husband of six weeks, Cook Teets, is charged with her murder.
Vandeleur begins
with a prologue in which Rosannah, in bed the night of her death, recalls the men she loved and, as a 12-year-old, her molestation
by a Catholic priest. The opening chapter is set in the courtroom in Owen Sound. The year is 1884. The narrative moves back and forth
in time as it examines the lives of the three principal characters, especially the protagonist, Leonard Babington. Points of view
shift in a combination courtroom drama, murder mystery, and a meditation on the moral malaise of Victorian Canada. The presence of
ethnic prejudice and religious discrimination is revealing in the depth and force of their corrosive effects.
Leonard’s obsession to
solve the crime is obsession plunges him into the labyrinth world of back room Ottawa power politics, the literary and art salons
of a smug and self-satisfied Victorian Toronto, and the licentiousness of the city's Insane Asylum. He becomes city editor of
the Toronto Evening Telegram and marries a girl who has been wrongly held at the Asylum.
After years of searching he uncovers
the murderer and in a shocking climax, publishes the killer’s confession just as the Great Toronto Fire of 1904 burns out the city’s
core. Babington contemplates a return to Vandeleur and ponders whether he has served the truth and if so, if truth is to be found
in facts, or in love and forgiveness
Left: Some of the audience at the Toronto launch of The Boy in the Picture. At right, Ray reads while Derek Boles, Toronto Historical
Railway Association, listens. Launch took place at the historic and restored Don Station at Roundhouse Park.
Launch News - The Boy in the Picture
Joey Smallwood:
Schemer and Dreamer
Dundurn Press, Spring 2012
Scheduled for Spring 2012 publication, “Joey Smallwood: Schemer
& Dreamer” will bring to light many new facts about the life of the amazing figure – journalist, union organizer, farmer, politician
– who almost single handed made his island the 10th province of Canada.
Joey Smallwood was born in the Newfoundland outport of
Gambo in 1900. After working on St. John’s newspapers, he headed for New York a committed Socialist, to write for the New York Call. But always his island home called to him. He carried a huge map of Newfoundland and every week went to the docks to welcome
the Red Cross boat from St. John’s and meet new friends from home.
In 1925, Smallwood returned to Newfoundland for good. He organized
a fishermen’s union. He walked hundreds of miles of Newfoundland railways to sign up members for a railway workers’ union. He tried
different types of farming, enjoying some success with a pig farm.
Smallwood lamented that Newfoundland was one of the most poverty
stricken corners of North America. It had gone bankrupt in the 1930s and had been ruled by a London-run Commission of Government through
the Second World War.
When Smallwood heard that the people of Newfoundland and Labrador were going to be given the chance to
decide their future form of government in a referendum, he made up his mind to campaign for Confederation. In the second of two votes
in 1948, Canada came out on top. Union of the two countries took place on March 31, 1949. Joey Smallwood became Premier, a position
he held until 1972. He died in 1991.
Decried as an autocrat, lambasted for endemic corruption and the “giveaway” of the Churchill
Falls power development on terms favorable to Quebec, Smallwood always maintained he had only one goal: the betterment of his home
country. Was he the “savior” of Newfoundland as some maintained, or the “treacherous devil” as his opponents saw him?
After generations
as a “have not” province, Newfoundland now boasts Canada’s fastest-growing economy, spurred by oil, mineral and power development.
“Joey
Smallwood: Schemer & Dreamer” reexamines the life of this incredible figure in light of Newfoundland's progress in recent years,
and measures his vision against its newfound position as a province of prosperity rather than poverty.