Blake Heathcote

Testaments of Honour Blake Heathcote

Testaments of Honour was born by chance. Blake Heathcote had set out to archive his grandfather's wartime scrapbooks and sketches, only to realize what a treasure the documents were. He decided to set out in his car to record the memories of other World War II veterans across Canada before it was too late. Over several years Heathcote contacted hundreds of veterans from the so-called Silent Generation, men and women who had never told their stories before, often not even to their own families. Many had come back dramatically changed, unable to communicate with loved ones. "Sometimes," Heathcote writes, "it took fifty years for them to come out again." The book's intensity comes from the fact that Heathcote lets the veterans tell their stories in the first person, full of bravery, humour, and tragedy. Much has been written about how the courage of the wartime generation transformed Canada from a small rural society into one of the world's main armed powers. But if there is a unifying thread in Heathcote's book, it is that war is a horrifying thing that must be avoided at all costs. "I would advise my sons not to ever get involved in a war, because politicians control it," says Joe Gelleny of Aurora, Ontario, who was an elite commando trained to jump from a plane, kill silently, and withstand terrible torture. John Stroud of Toronto, who was captured by the Japanese in Hong Kong in 1941, says, "I still have nightmares; most of us do. You can't get it out of your brain. There's no heroism in war; there's nothing but grief." In bringing together such voices, most never heard before, Blake Heathcote has made a valuable contribution to the literature of war. --Alex RoslinReview"Tears fill my eyes as I think of these men and women, and read their stories in this volume. Thank you to them from the bottom of my heart, and thank you to Blake Heathcote for his remarkable service to posterity, to truth and to Canada." -- Toronto Sun"Compelling." -- Maclean's"An absorbing read." -- London Free Press"Devastatingly eloquent." -- Calgary Herald"An invaluable record." -- Quill & Quire"Inspiring... powerful." -- Edmonton Journal"An astonishingly touching book." -- Ottawa Citizen