{"title":"Keith Billington","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"house-calls-by-dogsled-book-keith-billington-9781550174236","title":"House Calls by Dogsled","description":"\"People go north for a variety of reasons, some stay for a lifetime, while others can't wait to leave at the end of whatever term they have signed on for. The north tends to be either loved or hated with equal passion.\" These are the words of Keith Billington, who with his wife Muriel, arrived in the Northwest Territories outpost of Fort McPherson, 1,700 miles north of Edmonton, in mid-September 1964. They were among those who loved the North and stayed for six years. Keith, a nurse, and Muriel, a midwife, were barely into their twenties and fresh from England when they arrived, eager to put their brand new skills to work. Their clients were the Gwich'in people, who taught them how to snowshoe, choose a dog team and live off the land.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e These two young professionals were all the medical help available at the births of babies and the tragic deaths of other children, they were the first to tend gun-shot victims and deal with illnesses made worse by the isolation. Their story also tells of caribou hunts, fishing in summer lakes and travelling in winter by dog team, of sun-returning parties, and drum-dancing and New Year feasts. The book concludes with Keith leading a group who retrace the route of the tragic RCMP \"Lost Patrol.\" This is a delightfully warm celebration of the north in the days just before skidoos and cell phones took the edge off the isolation.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49610834673937,"sku":"GOR013755707","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49622290891025,"sku":"GOR002683726","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50881862828305,"sku":"CIN1550174231G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51036534341905,"sku":"NIN9781550174236","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51574778822929,"sku":"CIN1550174231VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52681234120977,"sku":"NLS9781550174236","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1550174231.jpg?v=1750761610"},{"product_id":"cold-land-warm-hearts-book-keith-billington-9781550175349","title":"Cold Land, Warm Hearts","description":"In 2008 Keith Billington's surprise bestseller, \u003ci\u003eHouse Calls by Dogsled: Six Years in an Arctic Medical Outpost\u003c\/i\u003e, vividly described Billington and his wife Muriel's experiences providing medical care to a string of isolated First Nations settlements in the Northwest\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Territories during the 1960s. In \u003ci\u003eCold Land, Warm Hearts: More Memories of an Arctic Medical Outpost\u003c\/i\u003e, Billington dishes up more of the hair-raising and heartwarming stories about medical emergencies and Native traditions that made his first book such a hit. In one story, he and his RCMP escort get more than they bargain for during a patrol of hunting camps as they find their loaded dogsleds plunging over a massive waterfall, which is only navigable owing to the fact it is frozen solid.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Time and again the Billingtons are awoken in the wee hours to find a life-threatening emergency unfolding before their sleepy eyes, which frequently ends by lighting a makeshift airstrip with rolls of toilet paper soaked in kerosene so a steel-nerved bush pilot can be summoned on a pitch-dark mercy flight to the hospital in Inuvik. Through it all Keith and Muriel become ever closer to the Gwich'in people of the North who serve as foster grandparents to their growing family and in whose life dramas the Billingtons\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e inevitably become involved. In this book Keith and Muriel return to their northern haunts after the passage of more than a quarter century and learn the endings to many of the stories started in the first book. They are moved beyond tears to discover their old medical post in Fort McPherson replaced by a modern two-storey facility named for their faithful Gwich'in assistant, William Firth.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Grippingly written and infused with great warmth, \u003ci\u003eCold Land, Warm Hearts\u003c\/i\u003e is an absorbing adventure story that rounds out the Billingtons' Arctic saga with a deepened understanding of the far North and its people.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50962009719057,"sku":"CIN1550175343G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51441597972753,"sku":"GOR014283143","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52666138820881,"sku":"NLS9781550175349","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1550175343.jpg?v=1750829602"},{"product_id":"last-patrol-book-keith-billington-9781927575208","title":"The Last Patrol","description":"In Keith Billington's new book, The Last Patrol, he shares one of the most tragic stories of the far north. It was a quiet December morning in 1910 when Inspector Fitzgerald and his crew left Fort McPherson, Northwest Territories, on a dog team patrol to Dawson City, Yukon. Their departure was without fanfare, and after a brief handshake and a salute, the men pulled out of the village and onto the frozen Peel River. Sadly, these four officers of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police would be remembered as the Lost Patrol of 1911. During the grueling 764-kilometre journey, after running out of supplies and experiencing brutally cold weather, they faced starvation and eventually froze to death. Sixty years later, Keith Billington, an outpost nurse working in Fort McPherson, organized a re-enactment of the historic trip using dog teams before Dempster Highway was built. Intrigued by the story of the Lost Patrol, he recruited ten men to join him. Nine of his companions were experienced Gwich'in men, two of whom had previously made the trip. Unlike the original patrol, Billington's departure attracted much media attention. On February 15, 1970, television crews and dignitaries from different agencies all descended on Fort McPherson to document the start of Billington's Last Patrol. Some wished them well and some were convinced this expedition might also end in disaster, or that they would be forced by harsh conditions to abandon their journey and return home. Billington weaves together these two stories, revealing the details behind both the men who lost their lives and the men who risked their lives to commemorate the sacrifice made by Fitzgerald and his team. This gripping story illustrates the commitment and determination of the men of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police and is a tribute to the legacy of the Gwich'in people who lived and survived in this beautiful but inhospitable land.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53308751708433,"sku":"GOR012672993","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53363621003537,"sku":"CIN1927575206VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781927575208.jpg?v=1774121689"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-keith-billington.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}