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A review by saareman
The Danger Tree: Memory, War, and the Search for a Family's Past by David MacFarlane, Lisa Moore
5.0
Come From Away
This was a totally engaging family history which also encompassed the history of Newfoundland.
David MacFarlane tells the story of his mother's Newfoundlander heritage by assembling family stories of his maternal great-grandparents and his great aunts and uncles. The often tragic stories include deaths in the First World War, from which the title "The Danger Tree" comes from. "The Danger Tree" was a marker in the no-man's-land between the Allied and German trenches where the Newfoundland Regiment fought at Beaumont-Hamel, France. The tree's (or its replacement's) mummified remains are encased in concrete at today's Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial Site http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/overseas/first-world-war/france/beaumonthamel.
This book was originally published in 1991 with the title "Come From Away", which is a common Newfoundlander expression for visitors or tourists to their island. At some point the title in subsequent re-printings was changed to "The Danger Tree," perhaps to avoid confusion with the Broadway musical? The story related to the new title isn't explained until the final chapter though.
Trivia
Canadian poet [a:E.J. Pratt|396861|E.J. Pratt|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1461028732p2/396861.jpg] seems to have been quite the grifter in his younger days on Newfoundland. The stories in this book have him selling some sort of fake tuberculosis cures to finance his eventual education and life in Toronto, Canada where the E.J. Pratt Library at Victoria College, University of Toronto now bears his name.
This was a totally engaging family history which also encompassed the history of Newfoundland.
David MacFarlane tells the story of his mother's Newfoundlander heritage by assembling family stories of his maternal great-grandparents and his great aunts and uncles. The often tragic stories include deaths in the First World War, from which the title "The Danger Tree" comes from. "The Danger Tree" was a marker in the no-man's-land between the Allied and German trenches where the Newfoundland Regiment fought at Beaumont-Hamel, France. The tree's (or its replacement's) mummified remains are encased in concrete at today's Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial Site http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/overseas/first-world-war/france/beaumonthamel.
This book was originally published in 1991 with the title "Come From Away", which is a common Newfoundlander expression for visitors or tourists to their island. At some point the title in subsequent re-printings was changed to "The Danger Tree," perhaps to avoid confusion with the Broadway musical? The story related to the new title isn't explained until the final chapter though.
Trivia
Canadian poet [a:E.J. Pratt|396861|E.J. Pratt|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1461028732p2/396861.jpg] seems to have been quite the grifter in his younger days on Newfoundland. The stories in this book have him selling some sort of fake tuberculosis cures to finance his eventual education and life in Toronto, Canada where the E.J. Pratt Library at Victoria College, University of Toronto now bears his name.