Getting ready to bop down to the very fashionable Carlu in Toronto for tonight's national magazine awards, I'm keen to mention a magazine writer whose new book is on my nighttable right now. (Late update: Nope, did not win, beyond the nomination itself. Good party, though.)
Christina McCall died in 2005, just a chapter into a memoir to be titled My Life as a Dame. What we get instead is an anthology of her journalism, with stylish appreciations and responses by a host of her subjects, her colleagues, and other writers attached at the end. A nicely done book, published by the literary house Anansi.
McCall covered politics, society, feminism, Canada's place in the world, personalities. She was just a hugely energetic journalist who got to write constantly. Oh, and a really good writer. And smart. This is worth reading, and if you don't find enough here, go read her 1982 book Grits.
