This is, above all, a book about journalism, and specifically about Canadian journalism. To be sure, it is a book about Borden Spears, a distinguished editor, press analyst, and critic, who played a vital role in the growing up of the profession until the time of his death in 1983.

Senior editor and ombudsman for the Toronto Star or as editor of Maclean's, consultant to the Special Senate committee on Mass Media and a member of the Royal Commission on Newspapers a decade later, Borden Spears was forever advocating higher standards in journalism, and just as often urging the public to demand better performance by its news media.

The story is told through biography, through his own words in 100 carefully-selected columns, and through extracts of speeches given in the wake of the Royal Commission's work.

People in journalism, those aspiring to it, and readers everywhere couldn't do better than to have Borden Spears as a mentor

Dick MacDonald is a Fitzhenry and Whiteside author.

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