Michael Layland – författare

Meticulously researched and engagingly written, Turmoil: The Life and Times of Philip Hankin follows the daring, rocky life of a world traveler, marine charter, four-time acting head of government, and larger-than-life personality who has for too long been an unseen shadow in the background of B.C.’s turbulent early history. Hailing from a frigid aristocratic family in England, Philip Hankin first landed in Esquimalt, British Columbia in 1847 as a young man in the Royal Navy. By then, he was already a world traveller who had spent time on expeditions hunting slavers on the coast of West Africa and been personally gifted signed portraits from the King and Queen of Hawai’i. A gregarious man with a penchant for gravitating toward the people and positions that would shape the early development of the region, Philip Hankin was a subtle but fascinating force on Vancouver Island in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Turmoil traces a remarkable man’s life from birth, painting an engrossing portrait of both one individual and of a whole region in flux. Philip Hankin touched the history of the islands first as a member of the navy working on the first accurate marine chart of local waters and delineating the boundary with the United States, then as a linguistic enthusiast and negotiator with Indigenous communities, and, finally, as a as a superintendent of the police, an administrator under three governors, and acting head of government on four separate occasions. Published for the first time in Turmoil is also the word list co-created in 1861 by Philip Hankin and a member of Huu-ay-aht First Nation that features three hundred words, thirty-five phrases, numbers, and the Lord’s Prayer. This list was a tremendous early contribution to linguistic scholarship and cross-cultural communication lost to the archives, introduced here by Dr. Henry Kammler of the University of Munich Institute of Ethnology. Rigorously researched and featuring excerpts from Hankin’s biography, letters, and numerous primary sources, award-winning author and historian Michael Layland reveals mysterious traumas and tipping points in Hankin's life that go unmentioned in his memoir, and from the twists and turns of one man’s journey, outlines the complicated global and regional forces that, with varying degrees of subtlety and force, moulded British Columbia as we know it today.

Shortlisted for a 2014 BC Book Prize Shortlisted for the 2014 City of Victoria Butler Book Prize Silver medalist for the 2013 BC Historical Federation's Lieutenant Governor's prizes for historical writing Just how, and why, did Vancouver Island get onto the map? How was knowledge of our immediate geography acquired and recorded? With 130 maps, dating between 1593 and 1915, this cartographic history tells the story of how Vancouver Island and the surrounding area came to be mapped. The book shows local cartographic milestones, marking progress in our knowledge through the island's rich--although comparatively short--recorded history. However, the maps, by themselves and without context, cannot tell the whole story. The accompanying text reveals the motives, constraints, agendas, and intrigues that underpin their making. The narrative, roughly chronological, begins before the arrival of Europeans and concludes at the outset of the First World War and includes an introduction on the history and significance of map-making, as well as an afterword summarizing subsequent cartographic developments. Also included are an index, endnotes, a list of cartographic sources, and a glossary.Now in its second printing, The Land of Heart's Delight was short-listed for the Bill Duthie Booksellers' Choice award in the BC Book Prizes, and for the Victoria Butler Book Prize. It also placed second in the BC Historical Federation's Lieutenant Governor's prizes for historical writing.