Paul Nicolas Mason was born in London, England, first attended school in Zimbabwe and has lived in Canada since 1966. Paul was a teacher for over thirty years, but during that time he wrote plays and novels.  His plays include Circles of Grace, The Discipline Committee, and Sister Camille’s Kaleidoscopic Cabaret, and his novels are Battered Soles, The Red Dress and The Night Drummer.  In the fall of 2017 he published his first children’s book, A Pug Called Poppy. Since retiring Paul has become a voice, film and television-actor.  In the last two years he has appeared in over thirty-five projects.

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Rene Schmidt is the author four books of non-fiction about Canadian Disasters. The first of these sold over 57,000 copies, the most recent published in 2013 is Canadian Disasters—43 True Stories. His novel Leaving Fletchville, published in 2008, was highly recommended by several reviewers and was the Red Maple Honour book in 2010. He has also written numerous articles for magazines and professional journals.

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Ruth Clarke is the author of a number of books of non-fiction, but has sometimes used fictional characters as narrators in her historical works. She has also written a field guide to Alderville’s Black Oak Savannah, with her partner, biologist and artist Rick Beaver, and Buffers, Boundaries and Barricades, a coffee table book of photographs and musings. Her short stories, memoirs and journalism have been published in anthologies, journals, magazines and newspapers.

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Melody Crowe is an elder of Alderville First Nation.  She studied at Trent University and in 2007 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award for the preservation of Language and Culture from the Union of Ontario Indians.  She has worked tirelessly for the preservation of Ojibway culture and language for more than 22 years and is currently First Nation Education Liaison for Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board. Through her company Aandeg Productions she has produced a variety of materials dedicated to creating a deeper understanding and appreciation of First Nation culture, knowledge, language and wisdom. Her most recent project is a documentary film called, What We Want You to Know.

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Ronald MacKay talks about his second, recently published memoir, Fortunate Isle. Ron was born and raised in Scotland but, on leaving school, he travelled and worked in Spain and the Canary Islands for two years. Fortunate Isle is about his life in Tenerife, and his transition to adulthood.

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Celebrate our fifth birthday as we revisit four of our first guests on the programme, Peggy Dymond Leavey, Eric E Wright, Linda Hutsell Manning and Shane Joseph, catch up with what they are doing now and take a glimpse into the future of Word on the Hills.

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Beth Bruder is Vice President at Dundurn Press experienced in all aspects of publishing books, both nationally and internationally. She worked in the reference world of Wiley Canada before transitioning to Canadian trade publishing at Dundurn. Beth serves on the council of the Association of Canadian Publishers and was a founding member and chair of the ACP committee that launched The 49th Shelf, a unique Canadian book-discovery website.

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WOTH talks with Rob Mikel, author and Gerry Brown, publisher. Rob was raised in Cobourg and then studied history and architecture at the University of Toronto. He worked for the Toronto Historical Board for many years  and works for the Government of Ontario today. When he lived in Cobourg he was one of the founders of the Cobourg and District Historical Society, sat  on the first LACAC of the Town and was a member of the Board of Directors of the Art Gallery of Ontario as well as the head of the DBIA in Cobourg for a few years.His important work has been recognised by the grant of the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Lifetime achievement in Heritage work.  And in 2016, he received the Mary Millard Award from the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario for contributions to heritage. His first book was Ontario House Styles on Ontario architecture. His new one is Cobourg: the Spirit of the Place

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