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Biography & Autobiography Rich & Famous

Beaverbrook

A Shattered Legacy

by (author) Jacques Poitras

Publisher
Goose Lane Editions
Initial publish date
Sep 2008
Category
Rich & Famous
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780864925220
    Publish Date
    Sep 2008
    List Price
    $19.95
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780864924971
    Publish Date
    Oct 2007
    List Price
    $35.00
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780864925534
    Publish Date
    Nov 2010
    List Price
    $11.99

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Description

Winner, Atlantic Independent Booksellers Choice Award and Best Atlantic Published Book Award
Shortlisted, British Columbia Award for Canadian Non-Fiction and National Business Book Award

Were the Gallery's treasures gifts or loans? Was Lord Beaverbrook careless or devious? Jacques Poitras sifts through the personal correspondence, takes stock of the witnesses and testimony at the 2006 arbitration hearings, and interviews the combatants of a bitter legal battle that rocked the art world on both sides of the Atlantic. Deftly connecting the pieces of this historic jigsaw puzzle, he tells a fascinating tale peopled with an arresting cast of characters — from the self-proclaimed "master propagandist" to the present-day heirs of the Beaverbrook legacy.

About the author

A seasoned political reporter for CBC Radio, Jacques Poitras has received the top national feature reporting award from the Radio and Television News Directors Association of Canada two years in a row. His work has also been honoured by the National Newspaper Awards and Amnesty International. He has appeared on National Public Radio in the United States as well as the BBC. With his credentials, insight, and knowledge of New Brunswick politics, there is no better person to have written The Right Fight, a truly Canadian story.

Jacques Poitras' profile page

Awards

  • Winner, Best Atlantic Published Book Award
  • Winner, Atlantic Independent Booksellers Choice Award
  • Short-listed, National Business Book Award
  • Short-listed, BC Award for Canadian Non-Fiction

Editorial Reviews

"Jacques Poitras has written a delicious story about the battle for Lord Beaverbrook's paintings. He has used a brilliant cast of characters — a mix of canny homegrown New Brunswickers and powerful British aristocrats — to pull together an important work of social and political history. Yes, this is a big, important book, but it's also a helluva lot of fun to read."

Stevie Cameron

"Take a cantankerous patriarch, throw in some very famous paintings and a family at war — and you have the ingredients of a gripping thriller. In Jacques Poitras's skillful hands they become something more: a wise meditation on a friendship that went very wrong."

<i>The Globe and Mail</i>

"A journalistic tour-de-force."

BC Award for Canadian Non-Fiction

"Riveting."

<i>Manchester Guardian</i>

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