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THE BIBLIO FILE is a podcast about "the book," and an inquiry into the wider world of book culture. Hosted by Nigel Beale it features wide ranging, long-form conversations with best practitioners inside the book trade and out - from writer to reader. Why listen? The hope is that it will help you to read, write, publish, edit, design, and collect better, and improve how you communicate serious, big, necessary, new, good ideas and stories...

Feedback or suggestions? Please email notabenebeale@gmail.com 

Oct 29, 2018

Elaine Dewar – author, journalist, television story editor—has been propelled since childhood by insatiable curiosity and the joy of storytelling. Her journalism has been honored by nine National Magazine awards, including the prestigious President’s Medal, and the White Award. Her first book, Cloak of Green, delved into the dark side of environmental politics and became an underground classic. Dewar has been called “one of Canada’s best muckrakers and “Canada’s Rachel Carson.”

We met at her house in Toronto to talk about her latest book, "The Handover: How Bigwigs & Bureaucrats Transferred Canada's Best Publisher and the Best Part of Our Literary Heritage to a Foreign Multinational;" about the history of McClelland and Steward, Jack McClelland's love of Canada, Canadian authors and Canadian Literature, government funding of Canadian publishers, nationalist policy, Avi Bennett, the University of Toronto, Penguin RandomHouse, oligopsonies, deep throat, tax credits, improperly given grants, "Puts," $16 million worth of debts, cleverness, Robert Pritchard, diversity of thought, lies, money made re-issuing The Handmaid's Tale, Canada as the first post-national country, benefits of economic nationalism,  bureaucrats, how Canada works, Canadian stories, and solutions.