$0.00 | 0 Items in cart

John Gillett

John Gillett was born in the small outport of Hart’s Cove, Durrell, Newfoundland and Labrador. He grew up in Twillingate in the 1950s, always listening with fascination to the sea stories shared by his father, Captain George Gillett, and the other sealing captains in the area when they came by for a yarn. The sea became a way of life for John at the tender age of eight, when he would go on sea voyages with his father, who was captain of the schooner Grace Boehner. At sixteen, John went to sea on the El Amigo, a cargo boat that carried lobsters from Placentia Bay to Gloucester, Massachusetts, then later collected salt fish from around Newfoundland. When he became a young man, he put aside the life of a fisherman to find work in Toronto. However, the sea continued to beckon him and, a few short years later, he returned to Newfoundland and didn’t look back. On his return to his home province, he secured a berth on a ship carrying freight to the Arctic. When that season ended, he returned to school to become a journeyman electrician. But fishing would always be in his blood. In late 1970, he made the decision to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a full-time fisherman. In 1971, John secured a berth for the seal hunt with his uncle, Captain Jim Gillett, which signalled the beginning of a lifelong career for John. Today, he continues to fish and participate in the annual commercial seal hunt. John Gillett lives in Twillingate with his wife, Linda. They have two children, Sherry and Richard, and five grandchildren. In his spare time John likes to paint folk art.

facebook linktwitter link

Related Products

discount
Flanker Press Ltd Leaving for the Seal Hunt
Leaving for the Seal Hunt
$18.95

About Flanker Press
Turning pages since 1994

Flanker Press is a bright spark in the Newfoundland and Labrador publishing scene. As the province’s most active publisher of trade books, the company now averages twenty new titles per year, with a heavy emphasis on regional non-fiction and historical fiction.

The mission of Flanker Press is to provide a quality publishing service to the local and regional writing community and to actively promote its authors and their books in Canada and abroad.

Now located in Paradise, Flanker Press has grown from a part-time venture in 1994 to a business with eight full-time employees. In the fall of 2004, Flanker Press launched a new imprint, Pennywell Books. This imprint includes literary fiction, short stories, young adult fiction, and children’s books.

LEARN MORE
Flanker Press Ltd.
Unit #1 1243 Kenmount Road, Paradise, NL              A1L 0V8
Canada

TF: 1.866.739.4420

Tel: 709.739.4477

Fax: 709.739.4420


The Latest
Always something new

Events
19 Oct, 2024
Book Launch - Hard Cases by Gareth Mitton - Chapters St. John's, Saturday, Oct. 19

News
10 May, 2024
Flanker Press and Rink Rat Productions are excited to announce that the Operation book series by Helen C. Escott has been optioned for film and television!
02 Apr, 2024
Change to shipping rates for retail accounts, and local deliveries
02 Feb, 2024
Love Our Local Authors Month - February 2024

Submissions
Send us your manuscript

Please review our following guidelines for submitting fiction and non-fiction manuscripts to be considered for publication.

LEARN MORE

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund (CBF) and the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, Department of Tourism, Culture and Recreation for our publishing activities.

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $157 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country. Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien. L’an dernier, le Conseil a investi 157 millions de dollars pour mettre de l’art dans la vie des Canadiennes et des Canadiens de tout le pays.