#1 on the BC Bestseller List

Vancouver Confidential is a collaboration of artists and writers who plumb the shadows of civic memory looking for the stories that don't fit into mainstream narratives.

We honour the chorus line behind the star performer, the mug in the mugshot, the victim in the murder, the teens in the gang, and the "slum" in the path of the bulldozer.

By focusing on the stories of the common people rather than community leaders and headliners, Vancouver Confidential shines a light on the lives of Vancouverites that have for so long been ignored.

Contributors:

Tom Carter on Vancouver's Entertainment Czars, Aaron Chapman on wartime fears in Vancouver during WWII, and the sins of Alderman Halford Wilson; Jesse Donaldson explores the case of the Lovers' Lane Marauder, James Johnstone revisits old Strathcona through the eyes of long-time resident Lucille Mars; Lani Russwurm investigates the "Red Shadows" and the 1930s communist scare with a spy's eye view of Vancouver; Eve Lazarus probes the 1928 Lennie Commission into police corruption and all of its ensuing ramifications; Diane Purvey addresses the strange case of Viola Woolridge and how the mores and legal system of 1947 resulted in Viola (or at least her character) being put on trial for her own murder; Catherine Rose takes us back to the Dirty '30s and shines a light on the "unholy trinity" of Police Chief John Cameron and gangsters Joe Celona and Shue Moy; Rosanne Sia looks at a 1931 Pender Street café murder/suicide that resulted in a ban on the hiring of white waitresses in Chinatown restaurants; Jason Vanderhill reveals the little-known story of Joseph Kennedy Ltd. and the liquor interest in 1920s Vancouver; Stevie Wilson on the staggering unemployment, relief camps, and Hobo Jungles of 1931;Will Woods on Mayor Gerry McGeer's transformation from iron moulder and labour activist to controversial mayor and reader of the Riot Act; Terry Watada on Etsuji Morii, the "Al Capone of the Japanese community," and the Black Dragon Society of Japantown and John Belshaw pays triubute to early Vancouver street photography and the work of James Crookall.

Praise for Vancouver Confidential:

Gifts for Bookworms Pick (Best of 2014), Vancouver Sun

BC Books for Everybody Pick

"... [a] fascinating anthology of original historical essays by 15 researchers in various fields. The real value of the collection, though, is in how it reveals far less well-known aspects of an introverted city's almost absurdly colourful past, when there were demimonde characters with names such as Tom the Greek, Shorty Miller, and Newsy Bernard." (The Georgia Straight)

"... terribly engaging and covers a great deal ... The book covers the years of Vancouver up to the middle part of the century. The team assembled are some of the best and brightest historians on Vancouver." (commentary.ca)

"... this collection offers multiple new and valuable views on Vancouver." (BC Studies)

Diane Purvey is an Associate Professor with the Faculty of Human, Social and Educational Development at Thompson Rivers Univeristy in Kamloops. She is the co-editor of Child and Family Welfare in British Columbia: A History (Detselig Press) and co-author of Private Grief, Public Mourning: The Rise of the Roadside Shrine in British Columbia (Anvil). She was born and raised in Vancouver.

John Belshaw is the Dean of Social Sciences & Management at Langara College. He is the author of Becoming British Columbia: A Population History (UBC Press) and Colonization and Community: The Vancouver Island Coalfield and the Making of the British Columbian Working Class, 1848&150;1900 (McGill-Queen's University Press), and co-author of Private Grief, Public Mourning: The Rise of the Roadside Shrine in British Columbia (Anvil). He is a second-generation Vancouverite.

John Belshaw's profile page