Mark Zuehlke
Author of Ortona: Canada's Epic World War II Battle
About the Author
Mark Zuehlke is Canada's Leading Writer of popular military history Holding Juno won the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize in 2006. In 2014, Zuehlke won the prestigious Governor General's History Award for Popular Media, also known as the Pierre Berton Award. Zuehlke lives in Victoria, British show more Columbia, where he is at work on his next book in the Canadian Battle Series. show less
Series
Works by Mark Zuehlke
Holding Juno: Canada's Heroic Defence of the D-Day Beaches: June 7-12, 1944 (2005) 93 copies, 3 reviews
Terrible Victory: First Canadian Army and the Scheldt Estuary Campaign: September 13 - November 6, 1944 (2007) 87 copies, 1 review
On to Victory: The Canadian Liberation of the Netherlands, March 23-May 5, 1945 (Canadian Battle) (2010) 84 copies
Breakout from Juno: First Canadian Army and the Normandy Campaign, July 4-August 21, 1944 (Canadian Battle) (2011) 56 copies, 2 reviews
Brave Battalion: The Remarkable Saga of the 16th Battalion (Canadian Scottish) in the First World War (2008) 39 copies
The Cinderella Campaign: First Canadian Army and the Battles for the Channel Ports (2017) 38 copies, 1 review
The River Battles: Canada’s Final Campaign in World War II Italy (Canadian Battle Series) (2019) 26 copies
Scoundrels, Dreamers & Second Sons: British Remittance Men in the Canadian West (1994) 25 copies, 1 review
Through Blood and Sweat: A Remembrance Trek Across Sicily's World War II Battlegrounds (2016) 9 copies, 1 review
The Juno Beach Trilogy: First Canadian Army and the Normandy Campaign, June 6th - August 21, 1944 (2012) 8 copies, 1 review
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Zuehlke, Mark Wayde
- Birthdate
- 1955-08-27
- Gender
- male
- Awards and honors
- Canadian Authors Association Lela Common Award for Canadian History 2007
Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel 2000
City of Victoria Butler Book Prize 2006 - Agent
- Carolyn Swayze Literary Agency
- Relationships
- Backhouse, Frances (partner)
- Short biography
- On January 1, 1981, Mark Zuehlke walked away from a journalism career to pursue magazine and book writing fulltime. He has never looked back. In 1992, Mark published his first book—Magazine Writing From the Boonies (co-authored with Louise Donnelly)—and now concentrates almost exclusively on writing of books.
Fascinated by Canada’s military heritage, Mark first set to writing about the role Canadians played in World War II after discussing the Battle of Ortona with several veterans in a Royal Canadian Legion following a Remembrance Day Ceremony in Kelowna, B.C. Discovering no book had been written on this pivotal battle, Mark decided to fill that gap. Ortona: Canada’s Epic World War II Battle was the result. The book’s success encouraged him to develop The Canadian Battle Series, which documents the Canadian World War II experience and has resulted in his being declared by Jack Granatstein as the nation’s leading popular military historian.
Mark is also an award winning mystery writer, whose popular Elias McCann series has garnered much critical praise. Set in storm-swept west coast Vancouver Island village of Tofino, the series follows the investigations of reluctant community coroner Elias McCann. Hands Like Clouds, the debut title in this series, won the Crime Writers of Canada’s Arthur Ellis Award for the 2000 Best First Novel and the third instalment, Sweep Lotus, was nominated for the 2004 Arthur Ellis Best Novel.
When not writing, this Victoria, British Columbia resident can often be found tinkering around the Fernwood heritage house he shares with partner and fellow writer Frances Backhouse. He enjoys hiking, backpacking, cycling, kayaking, travelling, and cooking.
- Nationality
- Canada
- Places of residence
- Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
- Associated Place (for map)
- British Columbia, Canada
Members
Reviews
Having not read anything substantial about the Dieppe Raid since Brian Villa's contentious book back in the day, I was in the mood to check out some new scholarship on the topic. What most impressed me with this book is how the author dissects with great precision the train of bad decisions that created the disaster. While there is no shortage of blame to go around (with the sense being that Alan Brooke, Crerar & Monty have all probably escaped their share), the basic problem is that once show more Mountbatten's raiding reached a certain scale it was inevitable that the British Army high command would want the lion's share of the action. Mountbatten's saving grace is that he appreciated that he was undertaking high risk/low reward operations almost for their own sake, a point that the Army generals really didn't seem to comprehend. This led to the creation of a set-piece operation which depended on clockwork precision and surprise, and which fell apart almost immediately on contact with the enemy; the poor damn Canadians then lacking the support firepower to redeem the situation at the point of attack. In the end, Zuehlke is of the opinion that it in no way denigrates Canadian valor to conclude that this operation should never have been mounted in the first place. show less
D-Day was a complicated event and trying to describe what happened in a 414 page book takes some doing. I know Zuehlke must have given short shift to many things, but this is still an amazing picture of the that chaotic day. A great deal of his information comes from interviews with the men of the Canadian, British & German forces. French civilians lend their memories to the mix as well. Because of the many short anecdotes he includes, this is an entertaining read that went by very quickly. show more The death and mayhem he describes made me wonder how I would have behaved in some of the situations these mainly young Canadian soldiers faced in their first ever combat experience. show less
Edwin St. Andrew St. John, the first character introduced in [b:Sea of Tranquility|58446227|Sea of Tranquility|Emily St. John Mandel|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1626710416l/58446227._SX50_.jpg|92408226], is a "remittance man." Emily St. John Mandel cites this book as her source for information about the men who were sent overseas when England no longer seemed big enough for all the sons of nobility. It was a strange period in history, from the 1880s show more until the start of the first world war, when suddenly the men had value to their country again.
Mark Zuehlke explores the impact these men had on Canada: some trying to recreate Canada in the image of England, some trying to recreate themselves in the image of cowboys. Some of the stories are humorous; most are tragic. Their attempts to turn wasteland into utopian communities in places like Carrington Manor and Walhachin are particularly fascinating.
My only issue with this book is the organization. Especially in the first few chapters, Mr. Zuehlke blends the stories of these men into one narrative, jumping back and forth between individuals who came to Canada at completely different times (1880s and 1910s) with very different experiences. A chronological organization would be easier to follow. Otherwise, a very interesting glimpse of a strange period of history. show less
Mark Zuehlke explores the impact these men had on Canada: some trying to recreate Canada in the image of England, some trying to recreate themselves in the image of cowboys. Some of the stories are humorous; most are tragic. Their attempts to turn wasteland into utopian communities in places like Carrington Manor and Walhachin are particularly fascinating.
My only issue with this book is the organization. Especially in the first few chapters, Mr. Zuehlke blends the stories of these men into one narrative, jumping back and forth between individuals who came to Canada at completely different times (1880s and 1910s) with very different experiences. A chronological organization would be easier to follow. Otherwise, a very interesting glimpse of a strange period of history. show less
Something a little different this time for review. Most of the time in history, longer is better: more text, maps, diagrams, citations, you name it, we want more of it. So it is interesting to come across a book that one of its stated goals is to be short and concise. I was particularly interested in how this book was going to turn out, because the author’s other works resemble phone books. So how was he going to deal with less than 150 pages?
Quite well, in fact. This book is from a series show more which is trying to service the market of those with limited literacy as well as English as a second language students. So care is taken with sentence structure as well as the lengthof the book. It took me about a half an hour to read.
It describes the landing on Juno Beach from the loading of the landing crafts through the ending of operations on the first day. The account is basically made up of first person accounts of the tactical battle. This is done with the author’s usual skill and the short sentences that he is required to use make the combat more immediate to the reader, something that other historians could well learn from.
There are two disadvantages I noticed. One of these is that there is no way for those interested in the topic to go on. There is no further reading section. I understand that considering the audience, you would not want to give citations to academic journal articles, but surely they could have suggested something. There are also technical terms which are not described in the text. I am quite aware of what a war diarist did, but I assume there are some that don’t. Considering I have come across a glossary of terms in works from academic publishers, I don’t think it would be condescending or anything like that to include it in the text.
All in all, a nice little read and I am sure I would have loved it if I had had access to it when I was in grade five or six. Just, you know, don’t use it on a paper or anything like that.
Highly recommended for its intended audience. show less
Quite well, in fact. This book is from a series show more which is trying to service the market of those with limited literacy as well as English as a second language students. So care is taken with sentence structure as well as the lengthof the book. It took me about a half an hour to read.
It describes the landing on Juno Beach from the loading of the landing crafts through the ending of operations on the first day. The account is basically made up of first person accounts of the tactical battle. This is done with the author’s usual skill and the short sentences that he is required to use make the combat more immediate to the reader, something that other historians could well learn from.
There are two disadvantages I noticed. One of these is that there is no way for those interested in the topic to go on. There is no further reading section. I understand that considering the audience, you would not want to give citations to academic journal articles, but surely they could have suggested something. There are also technical terms which are not described in the text. I am quite aware of what a war diarist did, but I assume there are some that don’t. Considering I have come across a glossary of terms in works from academic publishers, I don’t think it would be condescending or anything like that to include it in the text.
All in all, a nice little read and I am sure I would have loved it if I had had access to it when I was in grade five or six. Just, you know, don’t use it on a paper or anything like that.
Highly recommended for its intended audience. show less
This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.Lists
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Statistics
- Works
- 33
- Members
- 1,326
- Popularity
- #19,389
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 42
- ISBNs
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