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Elinor Florence (Company name) Elinor Florence

What the Book is About

 

My Favourite Veterans: True Stories From World War Two’s Hometown Heroes is a collection of personal interviews conducted by Elinor Florence with twenty-eight veterans of the Second World War, ordinary men and women who were thrust into the deadliest conflict of all times. Many of them had never told their stories before. This printed book has 256 pages and is illustrated with more than one hundred original photographs.

Among the twenty-eight veterans interviewed:

  • Fred Sutherland of Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, the last Canadian dambuster
  • Jessie Middleton of Abbotsford, British Columbia, a nursing sister who treated Canadian soldiers
  • Stocky Edwards of Comox, British Columbia,  Canada’s greatest living fighter ace
  • Merle Taylor of Lochaber, Nova Scotia, who taught Morse Code to the pilots in training.

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Take a Peek Inside

Here’s the index page, showing the titles of all twenty-eight stories. PLEASE NOTE: All of the stories published in the printed book are available to read for free, here on my website. Read them here: Wartime Wednesdays.

Inside the book are more than 100 photographs from photo albums and scrapbooks, many of them in colour.

One of the veterans interviewed was Stocky Edwards, our greatest living fighter ace, who came from Battleford, Saskatchewan, and lives with his wife Toni Edwards, another RCAF veteran, in Comox, B.C.

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Presenting the Book

It was my great pleasure to give each living veteran a copy of the book when it was printed. Here are Stocky and Toni Edwards at their home in Comox, B.C. Since both Stocky and Toni Edwards are veterans of the Royal Canadian Air Force, I used their wedding photograph on the cover!

Jessie Lee Middleton, who nursed our wounded soldiers in World War Two, shed a few tears when she received her book. Jessie passed away in 2019 at the age of 101.

These lovely people live in my home town of Invermere, British Columbia. Jim Ashworth flew  hurricane in Burma during the war, while Joy Bond defended the home front as a member of the Invermere Women’s Militia. (Sadly, Joy passed away on October 13, 2019 at the age of 101 years.)

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Order Your Copy

SIGNED COPIES are available ONLY from the author.

Cost for each book: $35.00 Canadian, plus postage — $15 each for locations in the four Western provinces, or $20 east of the Manitoba border. (Two books can be mailed for the price of one).

Pay by cheque, email transfer, or credit card.

To order, email elinor1@telus.net or call 250-342-1621.