Victor Suthren

Victor Suthren (born March 2, 1942) is a Canadian writer and novelist with an interest in colonial and maritime history.

Career

A native of Montreal, he attended Bishop's (BA), McGill, and Concordia (MA) universities. After contract historical work for National Historic Sites following completion of graduate school he formally joined the Canadian Public Service in 1971, initially as an historian at the Fortress of Louisbourg in Nova Scotia. He served as Director General of the Canadian War Museum[1] in Ottawa from 1986 to 1997, having joined the museum in 1975.[2][3]

The year he left the museum he was appointed from 1997 to 2014 as an Honorary Captain in the Royal Canadian Navy, tasked to promote public awareness of early Canadian naval heritage. Since 1997 he has otherwise been a full-time writer and occasional historical adviser and on-screen presenter for film and television productions.

He is the author of fourteen books, including several works of historical non-fiction, and his seven sea adventure novels, the Paul Gallant Trilogy and the Edward Mainwaring series, now also are published as e-books. His most recent book was a new biography of the Atlantic pirate Bartholomew Roberts (1682-1722), "Black Flag of the North", published in August 2018.

He received the Canadian Forces Decoration (CD) and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal.

Sea and maritime experience

With the Royal Canadian Navy's University Naval Training Division (UNTD) he trained in RCN ships "Buckingham" and "New Waterford" in the Arctic and Atlantic, and at the naval training establishment CFB "Cornwallis", and receiving his commission in the RCNR in 1964. Subsequently he voyaged extensively as a "tall ship" seaman. While at the War Museum and later for the Navy's Colonial Sailor education program (which was active until 2012) he organized and led historical naval pageants at Louisbourg, Halifax, Summerside, Charlottetown, Toronto, Kingston, Amherstburg/Put-in Bay(Ohio) and Niagara-on-the-lake, involving combinations of sailing vessels, replica longboats, and civilian naval and military "re-enactors".

Publications

Paul Gallant series

Set in mid-18th century

  1. The Black Cockade (1977) ( ISBN 0-8125-8862-2)
  2. A King's Ransom (1980) ( ISBN 0-8125-8866-5)
  3. In Perilous Seas (1983) ( ISBN 0-8125-8868-1)

Edward Mainwaring series

Starts in 1739

  1. Royal Yankee (1987) ( ISBN 0-586-20429-6)
  2. The Golden Galleon (1988) ( ISBN 0-312-02216-6)
  3. Admiral of Fear (1991) ( ISBN 0-340-63840-0)
  4. Captain Monsoon (1993) ( ISBN 0-312-08728-4)

Non-fiction

  • "The Oxford Book of Canadian Military Anecdotes" (1989) ISBN 0195407113
  • "Canadian Stories of the Sea" (1993) ISBN 0195408497
  • "The War of 1812" (1999)( ISBN 0-7710-8317-3)
  • "To Go Upon Discovery: James Cook And Canada" (2000) ( ISBN 1-55002-327-6)
  • "The Sea Has No End: The Life of Louis-Antoine de Bougainville" (2004) ( ISBN 1-55002-519-8)
  • "The Island Of Canada" (2009) ( ISBN 0887624065)[3]
  • "Black Flag of the North: Bartholomew Roberts, King of Atlantic Pirates" (2018) ISBN 9781459736009

References

  1. ↑ Walberg, Rebecca (23 January 2010). "Coastlines defining Canadian characteristic". Winnipeg Free Press. Retrieved 26 June 2011.
  2. ↑ "Victor Suthren". Historical Naval Fiction. Retrieved January 15, 2016.
  3. 1 2 "Victor Suthren". Dundern. Retrieved January 15, 2016.

Victor Suthren, "A Museum of Tolerance", Maclean's Magazine, March 17, 2003.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.