Peter Gzowski (1934–2002)

Reading this book was just like catching up with an old friend that you haven't seen for many years. I was a huge fan of Peter Gzowski's Morningside on CBC. I rarely listened to a whole show because of work but for a number of years CBC had "The Best of Morningside", an hour long show, on in the evening and I tried to catch that as much as possible. Of course, I wasn't alone; there were many devoted listeners.

There is probably a section in this book that will resonate with every Morningside fan. For me, it was the interviews with Robertson Davies. The first was when his book Murther and Walking Spirits came out. I believe that was 1991. Davies was seventy-eight then and at some point he said "I'm getting to be quite an old party." But three years later, in 1994, he published another book, The Cunning Man, and he came back to Morningside to talk to Gzowski about it. These interviews are just like gold to me because almost all of Davies' books I read after he died in 1995. I so wish I had been reading his books and listening to him when he was still alive.

Interviews with four other Canadian writers are included here: Alice Munro, Timothy Findley, Margaret Atwood and Margaret Laurence and each interview is a gem.

And there is so much more, letters from listeners, scripts of radio plays, a debate about whether Louis Riel should be pardoned, even recipes. I think I might try the recipe for the easy chocolate cake. One can never have too many chocolate recipes!… (plus d'informations)