• Age: 16
• Grade: 11

First published in 1986, now revised and with new chapters added, Brian Tennyson’s Impressions of Cape Breton gathers together descriptive impressions of Cape Breton Island, dating from 1634 to 1941, as selected by historian Brian Douglas Tennyson. Some of the impressions are overwhelmingly positive – “Sydney harbour is justly considered one of the finest ports in America” – some are harsh – “nothing but the most absolute necessity can possibly induce me to pass another year here” – and some downright amusing – “In no place of similar size in British America, will you find gentlemen possessed of more general information, or ladies of better tone and manners.”

Brian Douglas Tennyson, PhD, is Professor Emeritus at Cape Breton University, where he taught history for many years. He is the author of several books, including Percy Willmot: A Cape Bretoner At War (CBU Press), Historic Mahone Bay (with Wilma White), Cape Bretoniana: An Annotated Bibliography, Guardian of the Gulf: Sydney, Cape Breton and the Atlantic Wars with Roger Sarty, The Canadian Experience of the Great War: A Guide to Memoirs and Merry Hell: The Story of the 25th (Nova Scotia Regiment) Battalion 1914-1919 (editor).

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