Briony Penn, PASCAL publication author, just got back from a 5 week long book tour for her latest book. Leaving the genre of children’s literature, her book, The Real Thing: The Natural History of Ian McTaggart Cowan is the biography of a man who believed in getting into rural communities, talking to people and inspiring them about nature, conservation and science.

Cowan also supported the people in these regions that were struggling to defend subsistence lifestyles and natural areas in the face of large industrial pressures. He educated young people through very accessible science about the importance of scientific training that they could take back into their communities and apply.

Authorized by his family and with the research support and participation of the University of Victoria Libraries, Briony Penn provides an unprecedented and accessible window into the story of this remarkable naturalist. From his formative years roaming the mountains around Vancouver looking for venison to his last years as a major contributor to the voluminous and authoritative Birds of British Columbia, Cowan’s life provides a unique perspective on a century of environmental change—with a critical message for the future.

As the head and founder of the first university-based wildlife department in Canada, Ian McTaggart Cowan revolutionized the way North Americans understood the natural world, and students flocked into his classrooms to hear his brilliant, entertaining lectures regarding the new science of ecology.

The book tour hopes to bring these messages and the natural history stories back to the rural communities. Briony won a Book Award for her work and was shortlisted for best non-fiction in British Columbia.