Van Egan is a poet, a great fly fisherman and for many years was Roderick Haig-Brown's best friend. The two men lived within a few doors of each other on the banks of Campbell River. Mr. Egan still lives in his log home, with his beautiful wife, Maxine, overlooking the river. He had long written poetry, but only recently turned his hand to prose. It's a great shame he didn't start earlier, because he is a wonderful writer, whose books are right at home on the shelf beside Haig-Brown's masterpieces. In Rivers on my Mind, Mr. Egan travels back over his life to revisit the watersheds, and the fish, he loved.

"Not all people love rivers, even if they should," Peter Broomhall, a retired English teacher from Langara College writes on the back dust jacket. "But those who do love rivers - anglers foremost among them - are deeply indebted to writers such as Van Egan. . .

"Egan writes of the rivers he has known intimately, from his early trout-fishing days in Wisconsin to his retirement years in British Columbia. Though detailed and specific, his accounts are nevertheless universal and timeless."

We couldn't put it better.

Rivers on my Mind is a lovely piece of work, and we deeply hope it's not Mr. Egan's last word.

-Review by Mark Hume

(Copies of this beautiful book can be ordered directly from the author by calling him at 250-286-6527 or writing: Van Egan, 2340 Campbell River Road, Campbell River, British Columbia, Canada, VNW 4N7.

Mr. Egan asks that in addition to the price of the book, you include $4.00 to cover the cost of mailing in Canada, or $5.00 for the U.S. He advises that he may have to charge a few dollars extra for overseas mailings.)

Deep Currents: Roderick and Ann Haig-Brown. By Valerie Haig-Brown. Orca Book Publishers. PO Box 5626, Victoria, B.C., Canada V8R 6S4. (Ph: 1-800-210-5277) $32.95 CDN.

This book by Roderick Haig-Brown's daughter is a wonderfully revealing account of the great writer's home life, depicted through letters and personal accounts of someone who was actually there, every minute of every day.

If you have little interest in Roderick Haig-Brown, the person, then it can be a laborious read. But as a depiction of the writer, his wife, family and life at Above Tide, their home on the banks of the Campbell River, it helps us better understand just how great he was.

In a recent edition of BC Outdoors, Deep Currents received a thumbs down from Henry Frew, a former editor of BCO and long-time contributor to the magazine. Mr. Frew said the book was not worth getting because Valerie Haig-Brown revealed too much of her parent's personal life. He even said it should "go to a back shelf," until, apparently, those who knew Mr. Haig-Brown intimately, are all gone.

But if there's anything embarrassing in Deep Currents, it's the fact that Mr. Haig-Brown - this master writer and conservationist who was then and now heralded as among the world's greatest - actually lived hand to mouth for most of his life.

Despite his accepted greatness, the money never flowed in great big gobs as everyone might think. And the only shame in that is that our society was structured to allow it to happen, to allow resource industry leaders to make millions ruining the environment, while the Haig-Browns of the time were virtually forced into penury fighting and writing to protect it. (My how times haven't changed.)

If that's the embarrassing stuff reveiwer Frew is concerned about, then all the more reason we don't "shelve it" for the next generation. We must understand and learn that while there isn't a lot of money (or friends) to be made writing the truth about the environment, we should lend our support to those who do.

Mr. Frew's review of the book was about as intelligent as it was timely. The book came out in 1997. I suggest Mr. Frew, in his heated race to portray himself as one of Mr. Haig-Brown's closest confidants, tripped that very suggestion. Because those who really knew Roderick and Ann Haig-Brown believe they would have liked what Valerie did and congratulated her on the effort it took, and the final product.

I know.

I checked.

- Review by Neil Cameron.

(Neil Cameron is the Publisher of the Campbell River Courier-Islander and North Islander newspapers and former editor of BC Outdoors and BC Sport Fishing magazines. He lives and writes in Campbell River, and is often seen fly fishing on the runs Mr. Haig-Brown made so famous .)