Red Goodwin

by John Wilson

John Wilson has created a compelling YA novel based on the folk hero, Albert &quot: Ginger&quot: Goodwin, also known as &quot: Red&quot: Goodwin from the colour of his hair and his radical social ideas. Goodwin was originally a miner from the north of England, who came to Canada and took up the cause of the working man during the Trail smelter strike and at the coal mines on Vancouver Island. His ideas were eventually considered so dangerous that a special constable was hired to hunt him down in the forest near Cumberland. Wilson tells the story of a young boy, Will Ryan, sent out from England after his father was killed in WW I, to live with his uncle, a mine manager, at Cumberland. Through a chance meeting in the forest with Red Goodwin, young Will has all his ideas turned upside down, especially when he sees first-hand how the miners are treated in the community and at the pit face. Soon Will finds himself caught between the demands of his uncle, his loyalty to the memory of his father, and the new vision of Goodwin who argues that the European war between Britain and Germany has parallels with the war between the mine owners and the mine workers. In an exciting story, filled with sudden turns and tragic events, young Will discovers that he must make a choice, a choice that will change his life forever.

"A masterful storyteller." —"The Globe & Mail"

170 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

John Wilson, an ex-geologist and frustrated historian, is the award-winning author of fifty novels and non-fiction books for adults and teens. His passion for history informs everything he writes, from the recreated journal of an officer on Sir John Franklin’s doomed Arctic expedition to young soldiers experiencing the horrors of the First and Second World Wars and a memoir of his own history. John researches and writes in Lantzville on Vancouver Island. There are many more details in his memoir, Lands of Lost Content, https://www.amazon.com/Lands-Lost-Con...