Book Launch “People of Cove and Woodlot” by Ted and Alexander Leighton- March 19, 2025

People of Cove and Woodlot, Stories Across 100 Years of Memories

Alexander and Ted Leighton, father and son, have written a rich portrait, at times moving and at time hilarious, of the people they knew and loved in Nova Scotia’s Digby County over six decades of the 20th century.

“With powerful writing, the Leightons have created an affectionate and indispensable record of the ancestral home we southwest Nova Scotians share and love.” – Harry Thurston, author of Tidal Life, A Natural History of the Bay of Fundy and Lost River, the Waters of Remembrance..

Crossing Nova Scotia by canoe in 1927; touring a magic show by horse and wagon along back roads and settlements in 1929;; finding contentment, self-sufficiency and inspiration, as well as poverty and prejudice, in the people of the Acadian forests, the hills and shores of Bear River and Smiths Cove and in the glens of Meteghan Station, the authors offer readers vivid portraits of the real events and people who launched each of them into their own adult lives. Each chapter brings to life a new personality and a meditation on their ways of being.

“At any point, after you begin to read this, you can close your eyes, and in the darkness so created, can see life unfold around you, can hear the birds sing, see the bats fly, hear the laughter and songs of young and old who lived at the moment.” – Félix Comeau DDS, Concession.

In 2021, Ted Leighton discovered many of these stories among his father’s unpublished writings. He brought them to life in this book and added to them to provide this rich collection of stories spanning nearly 120 years.

Eva McCauley<https://evamccauley.com/> of Bear River made the drawings that so wonderfully illustrate this book.

People of Cove and Woodlot, Stories Across 100 Years of Memories was released for sale on March 1st, 2025 at a community dance at the Bear River Legion. A book-signing will be held at the Mad Hatter Bookstore in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, on Wednesday, March 19th, at 4:00 pm.

Published by Moose House Publications, which publishes fiction, non-fiction, and other materials about, written in, or connected to rural Nova Scotia, People of Cove and Woodlot, Stories Across 100 Years of Memories is available through the Moose House Publications website,<https://www.moosehousepress.com/product-page/people-of-cove-and-woodlot> at independent bookstores across Canada, from chains like Chapters and Coles, and from Amazon and other on line book sellers. The e-book edition is available on Kindle, Kobo, and many other digital platforms.

Alexander Leighton, MD (1908 – 2007) pioneered the study of mental health at the community and population levels, most notably through the Stirling County Study.
Ted (Frederick) Leighton O.C. pioneered the surveillance of diseases in wild animals and its application to public health and food security. Both spent important periods of their childhoods in Digby County, returned there regularly, and lived there permanently after retirement from their academic careers.