A professional book trailer for “Letters to Vimy” by Orland French is now available
A professional book trailer for Orland French’s “Letters to Vimy” has been released. In this book, the First World War is shown through a combination of historical facts and historical fiction.
The First World War and the present day are connected through the book “Letters to Vimy”, which spans a century. For the book’s readers, it acts as both a teaching aid and a method of learning. Mr. French is glad that, as the author worked on this project, the younger members of the family started to show an interest in their great-great-uncle Oscar.
The author of this book, Orland French, was born and raised in Waverley, Ontario, a few kilometers from the farm where his uncle Oscar was reared. The author was a regular columnist for The Globe and Mail who covered both local and national politics. He also worked in the newsrooms of The Ottawa Citizen and The Globe and Mail. He later became interested in local history while teaching journalism at Loyalist College in Belleville, Ontario.
He was the president of the Hastings County Historical Society for ten years. Because of his passion, he wrote history and geology books about the counties of Hastings, Lennox and Addington, and Prince Edward. Additionally, he provided customers with guidance on writing their own local histories as part of the Friesens History Book Program. He received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee medal in 2012 and the Governor-General’s Caring Canadian Award in 2013 for his volunteer work on historical projects.
Orland French is a professional writer who has penned news articles and features for Canadian daily newspapers for the majority of his life. He has published several books about history and geology. Furthermore, he has converted the book into a play also titled Letters to Vimy. It has been successful in its first showing.
Orland bases the fictional letters he writes to his uncle, Pte. Oscar French, on a collection of his real correspondence. Pte. French actually existed, and in April 1917, he lost his life at the Battle of Vimy Ridge. Orland’s letters, which are written in the enjoyable manner of a lively discussion between the author and his deceased uncle, are essentially brief history lessons for the reader. Through the 20th century, they examine what occurred in the world, the war, and Canada’s development.
The back cover of the book presents:
Dear Uncle Oscar…
I’m going to put a note on the back of our book to explain to readers what our correspondence inside is all about. It goes like this…
A hundred years ago a German shell fell on Pte. Oscar French on Vimy Ridge and ended his life. A century later author Orland French replies to Oscar’s real letters home to his mother and tells him, in his own sardonic style, how the world turned out after the horrific War to End All Wars.
Letters to Vimy is an excellent and highly entertaining personal guide to the birth and growth of Canadian nationalism out of that victory at Vimy. Sources abounded for this project, including a memorable conversation with a group of elderly German tourists on the steps of the Vimy Monument.
Your nephew in history,
Orland French
Watch the video trailer below: