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Without Reserve
Vintage book
242 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1969
16 people want to read
About the author
Sheila Burnford
24 books61 followersSheila Philip Cochrane Burnford, née Every, (11 May 1918 – 20 April 1984) was an English novelist.
Born in Scotland but brought up in various parts of the United Kingdom, she attended St. George's School, Edinburgh and Harrogate Ladies College. In 1941 she married Doctor David Burnford, with whom she had three children. During World War II she worked as a volunteer ambulance driver. In 1951 she emigrated to Canada, settling in Port Arthur, Ontario.
Burnford is best remembered for The Incredible Journey, a story about three animals traveling in the wilderness (1961), the first of a number of books she wrote on Canadian topics. The book was a modest success in 1961 but became a bestseller after it formed the basis of a successful Disney film. Although The Incredible Journey is marketed as a children's book, and in fact won the 1961 Canadian Children's Book of the Year award, Mrs Burnford has stated that it was not intended as a children's book.
She also wrote One Woman's Arctic (1973) about her two summers in Pond Inlet, Nunavut on Baffin Island. She traveled by komatik, a traditional Inuit dog sled, assisted in archaeological excavation, having to thaw the land inch by inch, ate everything offered to her, and saw the migration of the narwhals. This is a world that has experienced unlimited change, but Burnford saw the best and worst of Pond Inlet at a time gone forever.
She died of cancer in the village of Bucklers Hard in Hampshire at the age of 65.
Born in Scotland but brought up in various parts of the United Kingdom, she attended St. George's School, Edinburgh and Harrogate Ladies College. In 1941 she married Doctor David Burnford, with whom she had three children. During World War II she worked as a volunteer ambulance driver. In 1951 she emigrated to Canada, settling in Port Arthur, Ontario.
Burnford is best remembered for The Incredible Journey, a story about three animals traveling in the wilderness (1961), the first of a number of books she wrote on Canadian topics. The book was a modest success in 1961 but became a bestseller after it formed the basis of a successful Disney film. Although The Incredible Journey is marketed as a children's book, and in fact won the 1961 Canadian Children's Book of the Year award, Mrs Burnford has stated that it was not intended as a children's book.
She also wrote One Woman's Arctic (1973) about her two summers in Pond Inlet, Nunavut on Baffin Island. She traveled by komatik, a traditional Inuit dog sled, assisted in archaeological excavation, having to thaw the land inch by inch, ate everything offered to her, and saw the migration of the narwhals. This is a world that has experienced unlimited change, but Burnford saw the best and worst of Pond Inlet at a time gone forever.
She died of cancer in the village of Bucklers Hard in Hampshire at the age of 65.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 12, 2025
Again Sheila demonstrates her empathy and ideas that were ahead of her time in a lot of respects. Although she is still ignorant to a lot of what Indigenous peoples were going through at that time, she still manages to be insightful and questions a lot of the white peoples/ governments practices in their governing of the communities.
I’m intrigued by Sheila’s infatuation with and romanticized view of Indigenous people, and how upon immigrating to Canada realized that the white people here did not like them. Which led to her realizing she needed to take action.
Not loving the comparison between an Indigenous woman and a chimp.
Reading this really shows how simultaneously so much and yet not a lot has changed in 60 years in remote communities.
The postscript is really insightful and really does hit home how insidious the attempts to assimilate Indigenous peoples really was and how easy it is to empathize with their rejection of white society.
I think what makes the colonization and assimilation of Indigenous people in North America so unique was that it was at a time of rapid societal and economic growth and change. Not only were the Indigenous people colonized but they also had to adjust to a rapidly changing white mans world.
I’m intrigued by Sheila’s infatuation with and romanticized view of Indigenous people, and how upon immigrating to Canada realized that the white people here did not like them. Which led to her realizing she needed to take action.
Not loving the comparison between an Indigenous woman and a chimp.
Reading this really shows how simultaneously so much and yet not a lot has changed in 60 years in remote communities.
The postscript is really insightful and really does hit home how insidious the attempts to assimilate Indigenous peoples really was and how easy it is to empathize with their rejection of white society.
I think what makes the colonization and assimilation of Indigenous people in North America so unique was that it was at a time of rapid societal and economic growth and change. Not only were the Indigenous people colonized but they also had to adjust to a rapidly changing white mans world.
Displaying 1 of 1 review