"Never talked about it."

That’s what most people say when they’re asked if the veteran in the family ever shared wartime experiences. Describing combat, imprisonment or lost comrades from the World Wars, the Korea War, or even Afghanistan is reserved for Remembrance Day or the Legion lounge. Nobody was ever supposed to see them get emotional, show their vulnerability. Nobody was ever to know the hell of their war.

About 25 years ago, Ted Barris began breaking through the silence. Because of his unique interviewing skills, he found that veterans would talk to him, set the record straight and put a face on the service and sacrifice of men and women in uniform. As a result of his work on 15 previous books, Barris has earned a reputation of trust among Canada’s veterans. Indeed, over the years, nearly 3,000 of them have shared their memories, all offering original material for his books.

Among other revelations in Breaking the Silence, veterans of the Great War reflect on an extraordinary first Armistice in 1918; decorated Second World War fighter pilots talk about their thirst for blood in the sky; Canadian POWs explain how they survived Chinese attempts to brainwash them during the Korean War; and soldiers with the Afghanistan mission talk about the horrors of the "friendly fire" incident near Kandahar.

Breaking the Silence is a ground-breaking book that goes to the heart of veterans’ war-time experiences.

Not a soldier, but the soldier’s storyteller, not a veteran, but recognized by vets as keeper of the flame, TED BARRIS has published eighteen non-fiction books, half of them wartime histories. He has worked as a broadcaster in electronic media in Canada and the US for forty years. He is a full-time journalism professor at Toronto’s Centennial College and the author of the online column the Barris Beat. His book The Great Escape: A Canadian Story won the 2014 CLA Libris Award for non-fiction book of the year. His latest book, Dam Busters: Canadian Airmen in the Secret Raid Against Nazi Germany, is a national bestseller. 

Ted Barris' profile page

The seed of this book, like several others Barris has written, is rooted in a deeply personal oral history.

Saskatoon Star Phoenix

The prolific Ted Barris has etched a name for himself as one of Canada's foremost popular historians. While still giving voice to the veterans who experiences the hell, horror and humanity of war, Barris weaves the story of getting the story into the mix. Barris is a natural storyteller. Whether he is bringing a veteran's exploits to life or detailing his own experiences, Breaking the Silence is an entertaining and informative read.

Globe and Mail

[Barris] is arguably Canada's preeminent chronicler of the ordinary and extraordinary experiences of soldiers in wartime and their struggles afterward.

Winnipeg Free Press

The prolific Ted Barris has etched a name for himself as one of Canada's foremost popular historians. Barris is a natural storyteller. Breaking the Silence is an entertaining and informative read.

Scott Taylor, author of Unembedded: Two Decades of Maverick War Reporting