1954 Leacock Medal Winner
Pardon My Parka by Joan Walker
This podcast is about the 1954 Leacock Medal winner Pardon My Parka by Joan Walker. I have to admit to some confliction in respect to this book; it's light-hearted and a fish-out-of-water bit of humour that speaks to a specific Canadian experience. But at the same time, it's sprinkled with a few references that are more than politically incorrect and hard to overlook.
I talked about these features of the book with Brian Busby, a writer, a literary historian, and a Contributing Editor to Canadian Notes and Queries. His works include The Dusty Bookcase, a collection of reviews of little-known Canadian works of fiction. And he has also read and reviewed some of the Joan Walker's other books and written about what her writing might say about her life.
Dick Bourgeois-Doyle (DBD)
Hi Brian, thanks a lot for doing this. It's rare to find someone who
knows Joan Walker, and in my circles, if someone does know her, it's people who
have read her Leacock Medal book. So, it's great to talk to someone like you
who knows her other works and can discuss them in a broader context. You of
course, being an aficionado of Canadian literary history, I wonder if I could
start by asking you how you developed your interest in these old books ?
Brian Busby
Yeah, I think I was more drawn, not necessarily to something old but
kind of forgotten and obscure, suppressed in many cases, in Canadian
literature, and this might come all the way back to my intro to Canadian
literature, which wasn't through school. I think I addressed that in my book
about how I went to Allancroft elementary school in Beaconsfield and Beaconsfield
High School - there on the west island of Montreal. And we were never assigned
in all those years, a Canadian novel to read. And so, my introduction came
basically through just stumbling upon things at bookstores. And one of the
first to capture my attention was by William C. Heine, The Last Canadian,
which was paperback original about a man who, interestingly, survives a
pandemic that wipes out most of North America. And I think I really picked it
up as a kid because it had the word Canadian in it. So, I knew it was a
Canadian novel. And it appealed to me greatly because at the very beginning of
the novel, it features the main character driving into Montreal from the West Island.
So, to me, it was something I recognized, you know, a landscape that I recognized,
even though it's not really described - you know, just the idea that here's a
novel that took place where I live?
Dick Bourgeois-Doyle
Well, I think with that comment about reading something that took place
in the place where you live, you're kind of touching on some of the merits of
the Leacock Medal books, at least from my perspective. Notwithstanding the case
for studying the great literature of the world, books with Canadian subjects
and sensibilities, even historical, have a capacity, I think, to engage
Canadians and thus draw us into studying literature more broadly and the craft
of writing is both consumers and producers. So, I always say that the Leacock books
can be a window of Canadian history. So, it's instructive to look at books from
the past. And so, what a book like Pardon My Parka can tell us about
Canada, and maybe ourselves.
Brian Busby
And, you know, it's very much a reflection of the time and what was
selling back then. I'm currently reading Ralph Connor, for example, you know,
who was a huge bestseller just massive, and is largely forgotten today, except
maybe in academic circles. So, it's interesting to think you know, that this
was once popular, my great-grandfather had a Ralph Connor collection, like a
lot of Canadians did. And, you know, every Christmas and another Ralph Connor book
would come out and just get added to the shelf. So, it was - I find that sort of thing very interesting.
And it's the same thing I think you kind of touched on with the Leacock awards
-so it's interesting to see what won in a specific year and some of the things
that won in the 40s could never win today.
Dick Bourgeois-Doyle
So of course, one book that might fall into that category of being
something that might not succeed today is the book that's the focus of our
conversation - Joan Walker's Pardon my Parka. I have, of course, read
that book and have my own take on it. But I'd really be interested in hearing
about her other books and what you think of them. I think you've read two or
three of the others, right?
Brian Busby
I've read two, two novels. And as you as you probably know, she wrote
four novels in total – Pardon My Parka, her memoir is right down the
center - two novels before Pardon My Parka and two after. So, the ones
that I've read are East of Temple Bar, her first novel and, and Repent
at Leisure which is the novel that came right after Pardon My Parka.
The other novels that she wrote - one is a mystery that she published under the
name Leonie Mason, and the last one, which was published in 62. I think you've
remarked on this, how she had an unusual career as a writer of books because
she stopped with decades remaining in her life. She just stopped producing
books. But the last one is Marriage of Harlequin in 62. And it's a
historical novel centered around the 18th century dramatist Richard Sheridan.
Dick Bourgeois-Doyle
There's not a lot of written about Joan Walker, and I'm not sure why she
had this special fascination with Sheridan. Maybe if you read the rest of her
books, you can share an insight with me on that someday?
Brian Busby
Oh, I'm definitely going to read them all. I haven't read the mystery either.
I'm kind of glad I read the two that I did read because with what little I knew
about her life, and you're right, she's not really written about at all. I
remember really, I mean, her books have been long out of print. But the two
that I did read seem to have real autobiographical elements that some of which
I've discovered from reading your essay on Pardon My Parka.
DBD
I guess Pardon My Parka would probably be the closest to
autobiographical of any of her books, though there's probably some exaggeration.
Much of it's true. It's certainly a good description of her life in northern
Quebec and her love for her husband James Walker. I didn't know until recently
that she was married once before, sometime before the war. And I wonder whether
this marriage, which evidently was an unhappy one, might have been fodder for
the book you read Repent at Leisure.
Brian Busby
it may have had some bearing on it, but I suspect the inspiration may
have been her second marriage because she was a war bride. And it's about a war
bride. But I think she's imagining being a war bride who made the wrong choice.
And I think that's what's happening. They're not which is not to suggest there
aren’t some real autobiographical elements. I will say one thing I found peculiar
about Joan Walker, and this is found in both her books is, you know, there,
there tends to be a bit of fiction that she's created about her own life. I
think there's fiction in Pardon My Parka, just as there's nonfiction
elements in, in the two books that I've mentioned. And the one thing that
struck me is and I want to ask you about this is she refers to herself as a war
bride, who met her husband in London, is that correct?
DBD
Yes, well, at least that's how their encounter is portrayed in Pardon
My Parka and in the notes to it. She says they met during a London
blackout.
Brian Busby
Right, right. And the thing I find peculiar about it is that in Marriage
of Harlequin, her author bio, and I suspect, like a lot of author bios,
authors sign off on it. But often, you're even invited to write it. And in her
author bio, in the for Marriage of Harlequin, she says that she had come
to Canada on business and had intended to return to England, but then met and
fell in love with her husband.
DBD
Yeah, perhaps there is an element of truth to both scenarios. Maybe they
met in London and renewed their relationship when she came to Canada in what I
guess was the final days of her first marriage prior to her divorce. As you
know, my preoccupation with Joan Walker flows from some of those what you might
call unfortunate cultural and racial references that she makes in Pardon My
Parka. They jump out at you, and I'm conflicted. Because otherwise, she
seems like a cheery, friendly, self-deprecating person who you might like to
meet and even know. So as someone who's read or other books and works of that
era, would you say that she was particularly egregious in this regard?
Brian Busby
I don't think she was unusual for her time. Well, I shouldn't say that because
I do find the part you quote about, I guess she would refer to them as Indian
children. I found that absolutely shocking to read, especially in a in a work
of humour.
DBD
Yeah, that's a section that's kind of hard to look past. So, I guess my
question, though, is was there anything in those other books by her that echoed
this feature?
Brian Busby
And I was thinking about this after rereading your essay today and I
thought there's only one real instance. You know East of Temple Bar
takes place on Fleet Street during the war, and I don't think there were many
minorities around or even foreigners other than Allied soldiers essentially,
who appear on the scene but in Repent at Leisure, as I alluded to before,
it's really a book about a war bride or a novel about a war bride who makes a
bad choice and she marries a French Canadian, as he would have been known then,
named Louis Latour, and he's fabricated his past. And she comes to Montreal and
discovers that he didn't have like upper middle-class upbringing that she had
in London. And as matter of fact, he lives with his parents in a really pretty
awful cramped flat in the east end of Montreal. And she does pass judgment on
something that you noticed on Pardon My Parka and that is the idea of
these eight big French-Canadian families. And the mother, for example, we're
told is in her 40s, we're also told she is basically an old hag - used up by
having too many kids. I'm not quoting her directly, but it's just as strong a
judgment in her novels. That's about the only part you see though it's and
you're right that she has this kind of happy-go-lucky persona, which you see in
East of Temple Bar, or the main character has – same as the main
character in Repent at Leisure, always looking on the positive side of
thing.
DBD
Well, I guess I want to be more positive myself when I talk about Joan
Walker, and with what you've said about Repent at Leisure, I think that
we could recommend that Canadians might want to read those two books as a
package for an insight into the experience of war brides in Canada. I read this
week that there were some 50 to 60,000 of them. So, it was a significant
feature of our post-war culture. Some of the war brides had happy experiences
like that portrayed in Pardon My Parka. And others, who fell in love
with dashing young soldiers in Britain, came to Canada to find them in broken
by the war with different personalities and living in humble circumstance. So,
I guess we, as I say, we could recommend not only the Leacock Medal book, but
the one that you're referencing, as well.
Brian Busby
I agree with you 100%. I think it's a fascinating book particularly
because it's written by war bride. We always think of the war brides - we
think, oh, yes, they came with their husbands. But they didn't come over with
their husbands - Their husbands, they came back first with the rest of the
troops and then they followed. In this case she flies in on a repurposed
Liberator bomber. One of my favorite scenes is where she, she talks about, this
is the main character, of course, I keep thinking of her as Joan Walker, which
may or may not have been her experience, but about how, at one point she has to
relieve herself and she's ushered to the back of the plane where there's a
curtain. She pulls back the curtain and is surrounded by glass because it's
where the tail gunner used to sit. Instead of the tail gunner’s chair, it has a
chemical toilet. And I found that sort of thing remarkable, you know, just the
idea of these repurposed planes and just the hardship in general. And I agree
with you. I think I would have liked her and tried to ignore the other things
because she seemed like a livewire, and she really seemed to love Canada. When
you read Repent at Leisure, she really loves Montreal and really,
everything about Canada is great to her. There are no real complaints, although
she can be a bit snobby at times. But no real complaints, no complaints about
the weather, which I think you remarked on yourself. So yes, I thought it was
it was a very interesting, very interesting, read and really recommend it.