The journalist and author Marjorie Simmins discusses her new memoir In Search of Puffins: Stories of Loss, Light and Flight (Pottersfield Press, 2025), with Joseph Planta.
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In Search of Puffins: Stories of Loss, Light and Flight by Marjorie Simmins (Pottersfield Press, 2025).
Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: In Search of Puffins |
Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta:
I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.
I first encountered Marjorie Simmins in 2016, when she emailed me after it had been suggested by mutual friends that she be in touch. She and her beloved Silver Donald Cameron were making their way west in late 2016 to winter in the milder climes of Metro Vancouver from where they made their home in the east, in Nova Scotia. Both Don and Marjorie are originally from Vancouver. I was delighted to have both Marjorie and Don on the program, as soon as they motored their way across the country. They both came into the office at home to chat, first Marjorie on a book of hers, and Don on one of his, and then we did one with the two of them. I saw firsthand their affection and respect for one another, not just as married people but as writers. And it was lovely seeing how they supported one another. I look up from my desk now at a photograph from that sunny November day, a selfie of the three of us. It’s with the warmth of that memory that I sat at my desk recently, looking up at that photo on the wall from time to time, as I read Marjorie’s latest book In Search of Puffins: Stories of Loss, Light and Flight. The book looks at Marjorie and Don’s story, their love, their life together, and the loss after Don’s death at the height of COVID in June 2020. Don’s still around, as you’ll read, certainly throughout the book, he’s like a character, a voice through the book, guiding Marjorie, or giving her a laugh. The book is also great at illustrating grief and how hard it is to navigate. Marjorie during Don’s final days, and how she goes about to a new chapter in her life is damn near heroic. Marjorie joins me again, and I’ll ask her about how she finally got writing again, especially finishing this book. I’ll ask her about wanting to move back to Vancouver, but how she found that unfeasible. There’s a lot in this book, a lot that’s useful, but a lot that’s just worthwhile as Marjorie is a great writer; in some parts of the book, it reads as poetic. The website for more is at www.marjoriesimmins.ca. This new book is from Pottersfield Press. We taped this interview nearly two weeks ago, with Marjorie joining me from Truro, Nova Scotia. Please welcome back to the Planta: On the Line program, Marjorie Simmins; Ms. Simmins, good morning.
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