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James Elliott was recently awarded the J.J. Talman award for his book, Strange Fatality.
PERTH - Perth’s history has paid off once again for 1813 Battle of Stoney Creek author James Elliott.
The retired journalist’s book, Strange Fatality, has won the J. J. Talman Award for best book on Ontario’s social, economic, political and cultural history for 2010.
The winner is awarded by the Ontario Historical Society.
“I regard it highly, given that this is the foremost historical society (in Ontario),” Elliott said. “I’m pleased with the recognition. It will bring people to inquire about Alexander Fraser, because he’s been totally forgotten, and we don’t have many of those individual heroes.”
The book describes a pivotal battle from the War of 1812 that took place in Stoney Creek. The book goes on to discuss the lives of the soldiers of the war, and how many of them left the Stoney Creek area and settled where Perth lies today.
The book has been praised in both Canada and the U.S. as a well-written description of how a largely unknown battle changed the course of the war and possibly saved the future province of Ontario.
Elliott quit his job as a journalist for the Hamilton Spectator to focus on writing the book. He spent the first five years after he retired researching and writing the award-winning book.
It was published in 2009 by Robin Brass Studio of Montreal.
After spending so much time on the project, Elliott said he had no idea the book would be this successful. “When I was done I was just glad to be done,” he said. “At that point you don’t really have any perspective. You’re just glad to have the gorrilla off your back. It’s obviously found some legs.”
The prestigious award is not the first for Elliott’s work.
His book also won the non-fiction book award at the 17th annual Hamilton Literary Awards on Nov. 15, 2010.
The J.J. Talman Award was awarded to Elliott on June 4 in a ceremony on North York Memorial Hall.
“I’ve been extremely fortunate,” Elliott said. “(I’ve received) much more than I thought I would ever get from this book…Nobody is writing history books to make money, that’s a nonstarter. The fact that you do get something back out of it, this is great. We’re very pleased.”
For more information on Strange Fatality, visit www.strangefatality.com
andrew.snook@metroland.com
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