WARBRIDES-L Archives

Archiver > WARBRIDES > 2007-01 > 1168442983


From: "Melynda Jarratt" <>
Subject: Re: [WARBRIDES] Book "Pardon My Parka"
Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2007 11:29:43 -0400
In-Reply-To: <018901c7345c$b7338130$6400a8c0@home48683c78a2>


Hi, In October 2004, I was contacted by a writer from Quebec who was
putting together an anthology of writers from Abitibi-Tmiscamingue, Quebec.
He was looking for information on Mrs. Joan Walker, who had written the
book "Pardon My Parka". I had personally never heard of her but I did a
search on the name and book and found reference to her on EBay and on the
Stephen Leacock Prize website. I put a notice on this listserv asking if
anyone knew of Mrs. Walker but so far as I know, nobody ever responded. Here
is the email from this list dated October 7, 2004:

From: "Melynda Jarratt" <>
Subject: Did Anyone Know Joan Walker, Canadian War Bride, Author, Award
Winner?
Date: Thu, 07 Oct 2004 11:24:40 -0300

Hi all Canadian War Brides. I received an inquiry this morning from Denis
Cloutier, a Quebec based writer, researcher who is seeking information on
Joan Walker, an English war bride who married James Rankin Walker and
settled in Quebec. Joan Walker was a writer who won the Stephen Leacock
Award for Humour in 1954 for her book "Pardon my Parka". Please read his
email below and if you know anything about Joan Walker, please write to him
at . For that matter, if you know anything about Joan
Walker I'd like to know about it too!

Melynda
www.canadianwarbrides.com
_______________

Hello,

I would like to find more information on Joan Walker a war bride who lived
in Val-d'Or (Northwestern Quebec) and wrote the following books:

Pardon my parka.
Toronto : McCleland & Stewart, 1954. 198 p., 21 cm.
2e ed. : London : A. Barker, 1954.
3e ed : Winnipeg : Harlequin Books, 1958. 192 p., 18 cm.
4e ed : Winnipeg : Harlequin Books, 1961.

Repent at leisure.
Toronto : Ryerson Presse, 1957. 284 p., 20 cm.

Marriage of harlequin : a biographical novel of the important years in the
life of Richard Brinsley Sheridan.
Toronto : McCleland & Stewart, 1962. 256 p., 21 cm.

In "Contemporary authors. First revision -- Detroit, Gale Research Co.
[c1967-1979] -- 44 v. 26-29 cm. -- ISSN: 0190-3616", we learn:

Born in London, England ; went to Canada, 1946, now Canadian citizen ;
daughter of Jean Etienne and Madeleine (Siebs) Sutter ; married James Rankin
Walker, September 20, 1946. Education: Attended schools in Brighton,
England, and London, England; cole des Beaux Arts, Geneva, Switzerland,
student for two years. Politics: Conservative. Religion: Anglican. Home: 124
Elgin St. West, Oshawa, Ontario, Canada

Career : Harrods Advertising Agency, London, England, fashion artist, two
years; Amalgamated Press Ltd., London , England, sub-editor, three years;
Newnes-Pearson, London, England, assitant editor, three years; Sunday
Pictorial, London, England, feature writer during World War II; free-lance
writer in Canada, 1946- . Member: Canadian Women's Press Club, Canadian
Authors' Association. Awards, honors: Leacock Award for Humor for Pardon my
parka, 1954; Ryerson Fiction Award for Repent at leisure, 1957.

She is no more an Oshawa resident.

I am working on a repertoire of Abitibi-Tmiscamingue writers and would like
to find more information concerning Joan Walker in order to write a short
biography (in french, so please pardon my lousy english...).

And I hope you have a chance to read her books

Have a good day!

Denis Cloutier
1247, chemin du Parc
DESTOR (Quebec)
J9X 5A3
(819) 637-2152


>From: "Lynne FitzGerald" <>
>Reply-To:
>To: <>, <>
>Subject: Re: [WARBRIDES] Book "Pardon My Parka"
>Date: Tue, 9 Jan 2007 22:11:59 -0400
>
>Annette,
>That sounds wonderful!
>I will look for that one.
>Lynne
>(daughter of war bride)
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Annette Fulford" <>
>To: <>
>Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2007 8:49 PM
>Subject: [WARBRIDES] Book "Pardon My Parka"
>
>
> > Has anyone read the book, "Pardon My Parka" by Joan Walker? I was
> > wondering
> > if it was written by a war bride from WW1 or WW2.
> >
> > It won the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour in 1954. It is
>about
> > a
> > Londoner who was married to a Canadian Major and her hilarious story of
> > life
> > in a Northern Quebec town.
> >
> > Here is a snippet about the book: "Anyone can be a pioneer. All you need
> > to
> > do is to fall in love with a Canadian major in the London blackout and
> > find
> > that he is every bit as attractive when you get him into the light. I
> > don't
> > even suppose that he has to be a major. Or that a London blackout is
> > essential to the romance. That is merely the way it happened to me. For
> > me,
> > it had to happen in London because I am a Londoner born and bred - one
>of
> > those city slickers who can barely tell a cow from a sheep, and couldn't
> > care less. Jim tried to tell me that life in the Canadian mining town of
> > Val
> > d'Or was just the smallest bit different from life in London, but I
>said,
> > so
> > what? Then I tried to explain that I couldn't cook - couldn't even boil
> > the
> > proverbial egg - and the least domesticated of women, and it was his
>turn
> > to
> > say, so what? I could read a cook book, couldn't I? And he said he would
> > rather marry a sense of humour and starve, than marry some domesticated
> > little body, madly interested in the home, and suffer from mental
> > indigestion." Thus Joan Walker begins her hilarious account of a city
> > girl's
> > sudden exposure to a domestic life in the Canadian north. "
> >
> > Annette
> >
> >
> >
> > -------------------------------
> > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to
> > with the word 'unsubscribe' without the
> > quotes in the subject and the body of the message
> >
>
>
>
>-------------------------------
>To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to
> with the word 'unsubscribe' without the
>quotes in the subject and the body of the message

_________________________________________________________________
Share your opinion and enter to win! Please complete this survey to enter
into a draw for a grand prize of $500 or one of twenty $50 cash prizes.
http://www.youthographyinsiders.com/R.aspx?a=116

This thread: