Good old Paddy of the long-defunct Gage Publishing came to Edmonton in the hot summer of 1978 to sign me and Glen Kirkland to a three book Connections series contract for grade 10-12 general/non-academic streams in Canada.
A true gentleman, he had a lot of character and wore a white smoking jacket to the first (Vancouver) social function we attended after the books came out! A lover/student of language, he single-handedly oversaw the 1983 Gage Canadian Dictionary.
He left his Toronto job around 1984 when he inherited a family member’s U.K. country estate and became a ‘laird of the manor’ overnight, as shown here. He was a true character, a one-of-the-olde-school-Brit-kind.
Without him, I would never had a second/sideline career spanning 30 years of writing and editing books for senior-high school students, of which over a million were eventually sold, with each province using many of them. That also included doing well over 100 teacher workshops and conventions.
Thank you, Paddy, for your respect, faith, and trust in me at age 28.