Sable Island

Sable Island has been in the news for four centuries. Until the 1900s, much of the news was about the island as the Graveyard of the Atlantic. As navigation technology improved and the number of shipwrecks decreased, the island’s natural history began to attract more attention. During the past five decades, scientific and historical research and offshore energy activities have greatly increased Sable’s profile.

However much of what has been written about the island contains inaccuracies and misconceptions. While early works can be forgiven for many mistakes, modern writers have little excuse. Sable was somewhat of a mystery to writers in the 18th and 19th centuries, but now there are many reliable sources of information. A great deal of thorough research has documented the island’s natural and social history, and there are many people who have expertise on various topics – wildlife, weather, human activities etc.

Errors and misconceptions are common in print, radio and television coverage of the island – some are trivial and merely careless, others are more serious in that they mislead readers regarding significant issues. Reviews of non-fiction books about Sable have exacerbated the problem. One would expect that people who review non-fiction would have some expertise on the subject. However this is rarely the case in the book review sections of most newspapers and general interest magazines. Too many reviews of non-fiction are little more than a summary of a book’s contents, and comments on the style and presentation of those contents. But guidance regarding the reliability of the author or the accuracy of information is rarely provided.

Further, book reviewers can propagate mistakes. For example, among the many inexplicable errors in the de Villiers & Hirtle book was the statement that there had been a significant increase in the number of beached cetaceans found on Sable Island. In a 2004 Globe & Mail review of the book, reviewer Mark Abley repeated the error, writing “In recent years, the stranding of dead or dying whales has shown an alarming rise. The main reason, almost certainly, is the massive increase in seismic activity below the sea”. Thus readers of Abley’s review were misinformed even if they hadn't read the deVilliers & Hirtle book.

Island of Iteration: The Sable Island Poems of Karen Mulhallen, - Review by Sandra Barry, November 2007

Sandra Barry is a poet, editor, archivist, and independent scholar based in Halifax. In 1994, she co-founded the Elizabeth Bishop Society of Nova Scotia, and is on the advisory board of the Elizabeth Bishop Society (Hartwick College, NY). Sandra is one of a small group of people from Nova Scotia and the USA who, in 2004, purchased the house that was Bishop’s childhood home, in Great Village, Colchester County. The house, which was designated a Provincial Heritage Property in 1997, will be maintained and preserved, and is made available to artists of all disciplines as a working retreat. Among Sandra’s many publications—poetry, books, reviews, and papers—is Elizabeth Bishop: An Archival Guide to Her Life in Nova Scotia (1996). This book received the Colchester Historical Society Heritage Award in recognition of achievement in historical activity in Colchester County in 1996.

Free as the Wind (Bastedo & Tooke 2007) – Book review by Joyce Barkhouse, May 2007

Joyce Barkhouse is a retired teacher and the author of numerous books and stories for children, including Pit Pony (1990). Joyce lives in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, and has been with the Sable Island Green Horse Society since its beginning.

Touching Wild Horses – Movie review by Janet Barkhouse, April 2007

Written by Murray McRae and directed by Eleanore Lindo, 2002, this made-for-TV movie starring Jane Seymour was produced by Lewis B. Chester, David M. Perlmutter and Frank Hubner as a Canada/Germany/UK co-production. It is a drama set on Sable Island. As indicated by numerous messages in this website’s guestbook, the movie has been shown many dozens of times on television during the past five years. An intelligent and perceptive review of this production is long overdue. Janet Barkhouse is a retired actor and educator who lives and writes on Nova Scotia’s South Shore. She has been interested in Sable Island since she was a child.

Sable Island: Tales of Tragedy and Survival from the Graveyard of the Atlantic, (Bertin, 2006). – Book review by Lyall Campbell, December 2006

Lyall Campbell has been researching the history of Sable Island for three decades. He is a published author and has worked with various institutions as editor and librarian. In his review of Bertin’s book, Lyall discusses the role of speculation in creative non-fiction, and highlights some errors that have become truisms in much contemporary writing about Sable.

Weighing in… a review of three books about Sable Island, – Review by Henry James, March 2006

In the 1970s, while a professor in the Psychology Department of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Henry James researched seal behaviour on Sable Island. He and his graduate students spent time on the island during both summer and winter. Here Henry reviews three books about Sable: Bruce Armstrong (1981), Lyall Campbell (1994), and deVilliers & Hirtle (2004).