Village Squire, 1979-05, Page 7got a microcosm of what is going on not just in London but on a
broader scale because the influences are global.
Getting back to those years with CBC it was a tremendously
prolific time for him. He was responsible for the Monday night
programming for the CBC's farm department. During the winter
he was with the Farm Forum and during the summer he
developed a program from a magazine format to a drama format
called Summer Fallow which ran for 39 weeks and he wrote all
the shows. It was exciting he says because he was never more
than one script ahead but they were good years because during
the winter he travelled and during the summer he wrote for
Summer Fallow which meant he was back and forth across
Canada looking for stories to dramatize. He met some
tremendously interesting people during the time. There were no
tape recorders and a paper and pencil tended to make people
nervous so he trained himself to remember what was said and
only copy down the most important of details.
"The history of this country is full of individuals, mad, crazy,
insane. delightful, beautiful people. because they were the
people who chose to come here: the adventurers, the nuts, the
cranks the criminals, the people who lived by their wits, the
people who were determined in their choice. And the
consequence is we've got them running out of our ears. For
every American Daniel Boone. we've got 10. He goes on to talk
about one of his favourite interests, Butler's Rangers, the British
unit that operated out of the Niagara area during the American
War of Independence, a group of colourful, eccentric heros who
still are part of the folklore of upper New York State where they
were feared by the Americans. Butler was a devil on the
American side of the story but on the British side he was a
brilliant soldier and a romantic.
After his years with the Farm Forum and Summer Fallow he
moved back to London to work in public relations and advertising
and one of his clients the Community chest asked him to become
public relations director for Community Chest. He worked there
from 1953 to 1963 and held the role of assistant director and due
to changes in directors. was acting director for some time for
what became United Way. He was ordained before he finished
his work for the United Way.
But through it all he continued to write. His first book to make
a splash was The Donnellys Must Die in 1962. Other interests
may be followed but, he says, "one of the things one must
understand if one intends to be a writer is if it is not a
compulsion, stay away from it. My definition of a writer is
somebody who if he finds himself somewhere without a pencil
and a piece of paper feels naked. because you might see
something. you might think of something that you'd like to put
down.
"And the second thing is that you've got to realize the fact that
if you're a writer. you're a neurotic. It just happens that your
neurosis is socially acceptable. People who live with writers
know. If I'm away from a typewriter or a pencil and a piece of
paper for two or three weeks as I have been when I've been sick
or something I become just impossible to live with."
Today writing has become a major portion of his life or.ce
again. The basement office of his modest London home is the
workplace of a very professional. disciplined, organized writer.
The bookshelves are lined with books including encyclopedias for
handy reference. In one corner stands a file cabinet filled with
his priority list starting from his first priority at the top to the
bottom draw which contains ideas that may or may not ever be
dealt with.
"When you're a freelance writer as I was for 20 years if you
don't write, you don't eat. So you learn discipline which is
something that very few of these characters (aspiring young
writers and Margaret Trudeau-types) ever learn.
He keeps track often of how long it takes him to writer
something because he has to pare his time down to the point that
the return he gets financially is worth the time he puts into it.
The maximum period over which he finds he can write
productively is four hours. Beyond that the intensity of
concentration required can't be upheld. He starts out with his
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May 1979, Village Squire 5