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14 Ontario School Library Association Meet the Author Hugh Brewster TingL: What led to your interest in writing both historical and war-themed fiction and non-fiction? H.B.: I have always loved history. Old houses, old buildings, old things have always fascinated me. As a child, visiting a historic site, like Fort George in Niagara, was always a big thrill. I'd imagine what had happened in that place and what it was like to be alive then. And I devoured historical fiction though I was never a war buff. Growing up in the 1950s, World War II was in quite recent memory and some boys could talk passionately about Messerschmitts and Focke-Wulf fighter planes and the difference between a Sten and a Bren gun, but I was never one of those boys. Interest in the Canadians in World War I and II came later, when I realized that a large part of our history had not been written about for young readers. Your award-winning books like On Juno Beach, At Vimy Ridge, Dieppe, and From Vimy to Victory are so beautifully presented. How do works like that come together, in terms of the process of writing, collaborating, and coordinating illustrations and archival photographs? Well, unlike most authors, I actually "package" those books, doing all the photo research, coming up with the layouts for each spread and supervising the design with a designer I've worked with frequently. This is through my company Whitfield Editions. I was a publisher and book packager for many years before becoming a full-time writer in 2004, so I have considerable experience at creating illustrated books. I then present the publisher with a finished disk from which they Hugh Brewster is an award-winning author of numerous books and performances. His works vividly depict true-life, unforgettable stories from history, including Canadians at war, the Titanic, and other historical events which have fascinated him over time. Among Brewster's fiction and non-fiction awards are the 2012 Hackmatack Children's Choice Award for English Fiction for I Am Canada: Prisoner of Dieppe, the Information Book Award in 2005 for the non-fiction On Juno Beach: Canada's D-Day Heroes, and the 2008 Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children's non-fiction for At Vimy Ridge: Canada's Greatest World War I Victory.