Barbara Dickson – författare

From singing to the postman when she was two years old to her annual sell-out tours in the 2000s, Barbara Dickson has been captivating her fans for the best part of sixty years. In her autobiography she describes the joys of growing up in Fife with her talented brother and loving parents, of moving to Edinburgh to find her place in the world and the stresses and strains of trying to make a living on the Scottish folk scene. Not content to have just a successful singing career, she turned to another: acting. A regular on prime-time television, Barbara also took to musicals and was the original lead role in Spend, Spend, Spend. Her hugely successful time onstage earned her many acting accolades but her pursuit of perfection led to complete exhaustion from which she fought hard to recover. Barbara writes beautifully about the close relationships she cultivated over these years with people such as Willy Russell, Elaine Paige and Billy Connolly. The result is a warm, fascinating story encompassing the best of British music, stage and television.

2016 Heritage Toronto Book Award — NominatedAn account of the women working in high-security, dangerous conditions making bombs in Toronto during the Second World War.What was it like to work in a Canadian Second World War munitions factory? What were working conditions like? Did anyone die? Just how closely did female employees embody the image of “Rosie the Riveter” so popularly advertised to promote factory work in war propaganda posters? How closely does the recent TV show, Bomb Girls, resemble the actual historical record of the day-to-day lives of bomb-making employees?Bomb Girls delivers a dramatic, personal, and detailed review of Canada’s largest fuse-filling munitions factory, situated in Scarborough, Ontario. First-hand accounts, technical records, photographic evidence, business documentation, and site maps all come together to offer a rare, complete account into the lives of over twenty-one thousand brave men and women who risked their lives daily while handling high explosives in a dedicated effort to help win the war.

2016 Heritage Toronto Book Award — NominatedAn account of the women working in high-security, dangerous conditions making bombs in Toronto during the Second World War.What was it like to work in a Canadian Second World War munitions factory? What were working conditions like? Did anyone die? Just how closely did female employees embody the image of “Rosie the Riveter” so popularly advertised to promote factory work in war propaganda posters? How closely does the recent TV show, Bomb Girls, resemble the actual historical record of the day-to-day lives of bomb-making employees?Bomb Girls delivers a dramatic, personal, and detailed review of Canada’s largest fuse-filling munitions factory, situated in Scarborough, Ontario. First-hand accounts, technical records, photographic evidence, business documentation, and site maps all come together to offer a rare, complete account into the lives of over twenty-one thousand brave men and women who risked their lives daily while handling high explosives in a dedicated effort to help win the war.

Uncover the stories of ninety intrepid Canadians who served on the home front from 1939 to 1945.On September 10, 1939, CBC Radio interrupted their broadcast with the historic announcement that Canada had declared war on Nazi Germany. From that moment, hundreds of thousands of war workers — predominantly women — conclusively forged a new culture within the nation’s labour, home, and political environs.Courage and Grit offers ninety amazing stories gleaned from every corner of society, from farmers’ daughters to lawyers, from impoverished immigrants to Rosedale elite, from high school students to great-grandmothers, with every narrative unique, intimately personal, and painstakingly examined. In this book, you’ll find stories of faith, loss, love, sacrifice, and devotion to family and country.These never-before-told stories offer a culturally rich history of the women who served at home during the Second World War.