Veteran Newfoundland and Labrador journalist Bob Wakeham satirizes, skewers and salutes in this retrospective work, a selection of pieces from his popular newspaper column.
Selected and edited by Wakeham and writer and literacy advocate Frances Ennis, the columns span 2006 to 2024. Together, they offer the perfect blend of a time capsule of Newfoundland and Labrador popular discourse, and a love letter to political satire.
Wakeham’s sharp wit and piercing insight are leveled at everything from the early days of the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric development and Don Cherry’s ejection from Hockey Night in Canada, to every premier since Joey Smallwood and what Wakeham labeled the “Stunned Arses Awards”. But for every punch thrown, there’s a tender tribute to a lost colleague, an unflinching examination of the author’s own life, or a reflective look at societal issues.
A must-have for fans of satirical favourites like Ray Guy and Mary Walsh, Wakeham's writing reminds us of the journalist’s duty to keep politicians, the justice system, and influencers accountable for their words and actions.
Praise for Bob Wakeham's work:
“Bob Wakeham is a true literary renegade and one of my favourite Newfoundlanders. His writing is fearless and honourable. This timely collection heralds some of the most scholarly and important journalism ever to come off this island.”
Joel Thomas Hynes, Writer, Actor, Director. Winner of the 2017 Governor General’s Award for Canadian fiction.
“I am unabashedly in love with Bob Wakeham, not just his work, but actually the man himself. It will no doubt be a great joy to read a collection of his brilliant columns in one book.”
Mary Walsh, Award-winning Actor, Director, Writer.
“Bob has a sarcastic style all his own and a talent for succinct description. He can be as blunt as a butter knife and sharp as a razor.”
Pam Frampton, Columnist, Former Managing Editor of The Telegram.
“Astute, hard-hitting, wry. Wakeham’s columns cast a cool eye on current political shenanigans and on our past failures. Ray Guy is nodding approvingly from his corner of Satirists’ Heaven.”
Mary Dalton, Award winning Poet, Memorial University Professor Emerita.
“No one has written in these parts as fearlessly or incisively as Bob Wakeham. In column after column Wakeham has the uncanny knack of saying just what we are thinking.”
Noreen Golfman, Professor & Past-VP Memorial University of Newfoundland; Founder and Chair of the St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival.
“The best journalists bring to their trade some combination of passion, clarity, courage, honesty, and moralism. Bob Wakeham brings them all.”
Ron Crocker, Author of Portrait of a Rebel, a biography of Newfoundland satirist and writer Ray Guy.
