Canton: Brian Doyle, at 90, remains 'one of the greatest writers of books for children that Canada has ever seen'

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I’ve been spending the last couple of months gathering tributes for children’s writer Brian Doyle.

Brian Doyle, a celebrated Ottawa-area author, turned 90 last month. Canadian readers of all ages, from coast-to-coast, should be celebrating with this great Canadian … but not a peep from national media.

It should be “Elbows Up!” for this writer. His friend and former publisher, Patsy Aldana at Groundwood Books and one of our preeminent independent children’s publishers, calls him “one of the greatest writers of books for children that Canada has ever seen.

“Publishing him on my very first Groundwood Books list, and all through my life at Groundwood, was one of my most important accomplishments.”

Closer to home, Charles Gordon, long-time friend and former Ottawa Citizen columnist, says, “Brian Doyle’s stuff is funny, tender, edgy and profound, all at the same time. He is not just a great children’s writer, he is a great writer, period, one of Canada’s best ever.”

Ottawa’s Janet Irwin, who adapted Doyle’s books Angel Square and Up To Low for the stage, says, “Brian Doyle is a quietly spectacular writer. His fans are enchanted by his capturing of the soul of the Ottawa and the Gatineau that he’s shared in his magical novels — his books are funny, generous, mischievous, human.”

His long-time colleague and friend, Tim Wynne-Jones, one of Canada’s finest young adult writers, agrees. What Doyle did for Canadian children’s writing, according to Wynne-Jones ,was to create “a kind of cartography of the Canadian spirit. He was an integral voice in what I like to think of as the literary mapping out of Canada by Canadian children’s writers.”

Writers, librarians, literary critics, teachers, and storytellers from all across Canada have agreed that what Doyle has done in his books for young readers is unlike the work of any other writer and he deserves to be celebrated as a Canadian great.

While he may no longer be writing for children — his last novel, Pure Spring, his 13th, was published in 2007 — Doyle has never stopped writing. Writing isn’t a choice for him, he’s told me, but a necessity, and he’s most recently self-published books of essays, adult fiction and poetry.

Many, many tributes I’ve received are testaments to the power of Doyle’s work. Writer and critic, Sarah Ellis wrote that “Brian Doyle changed my life.

“In 1982, I came across his Up to Low. I remember that first reading. I kept stopping and looping back over specific sentences and paragraphs, asking myself, ‘Is this as good as I think it is?’ It was. Every bit as good. When I finished reading about Mean Hughie and Auntie Dottie and Poor Bridget, I simply started reading it all over again. I’ve been rereading it ever since.” Ellis has described herself as a lifelong “Doylist.”

I am a Doylist too. Brian Doyle changed my life as a freelance writer and reviewer when I reviewed his 1990 novel, Covered Bridge, for the Canadian Children’s Book Centre. I’d never read anything like it: a book for 8-to-12-year-old readers written in a style that was unlike anything else I’d ever encountered.

I kept stopping and looping back over specific sentences and paragraphs, asking myself, 'Is this as good as I think it is?' It was.

Sarah Ellis Writer and critic

His style captures his absolutely distinctive voice, blending comedy and tragedy with a dash of Dylan Thomas, a pinch of James Joyce, a sprinkle of Shakespeare and a touch of Irish blarney. He brilliantly explores in each of his novels issues that are relevant to the lives of the young readers for whom he is writing. But behind each of the rollicking belly laughs is a humane and sensitively expressed desire to understand what it means to be a child. There’s no one like him.

So “Elbows Up!” Canada and join me in wishing Brian Doyle a very happy, if slightly belated, 90th birthday.

Jeffrey Canton has been writing about, teaching and promoting Canadian children’s books since 1990 when he began writing for The Canadian Children’s Book Centre’s Children Book News.