Someone once said we’ve all got a book in us. If so, my friend Barry Porter has a whole library’s worth of stories to tell. He’s simply one of the most interesting people I know. Farmer’s son, photographer, outdoorsman, life-long amateur historian, devoted family man, and lifelong Dylan fan. Barry has also crisscrossed North America several times on his motorcycle. This son of Porterville, Newfoundland is also a regular radio call-in guest, and has appeared on television locally and nationally at least half a dozen times. When I worked at CBC, I used to joke that Barry had made almost as many on-air appearances as me. When Barry called me and told me he was writing a book, I wondered which one of his many interests he’d be focussing on, forgetting of course that he had been a lighthouse keeper for over 23 years. Get ready for a treasure trove of yarns from some of the loneliest and most beautiful outposts on Newfoundland’s rugged coastline. From Long Point lighthouse to Bacalhao Island, you can almost smell the sea air and feel the stifling dampness of the fog as it closes in. This is an intimate look inside an important and demanding job that requires a tolerance for loneliness, isolation, and extreme weather. This is a writer in touch with the beauty and cruelty of one of the world’s deadliest coastlines. This is also a story about what it takes to survive days of monotony when the weather closes in. Hint: it involves books, developing new hobbies, and developing a knack for performing surgery on oneself. Just a hint of what you can expect from what is hopefully the first of several books from my friend, Barry Porter. -- Jonathan Crowe - Former CBC Here and Now co-Host --

There’s a romantic resonance to the occupation of lighthouse keeper – I think it’s a job many people have imagined doing. It doesn’t seem like the kind of lifestyle one falls into: surely there is something intrinsic to the loneliness and resilience such a vocation required. Of course the reality is quite nuts-and-bolts, lots of record keeping and an incredible amount of multi-tasking. But, in Barry Porter’s account, “Adventures of a Lightkeeper: A Memoir”, it is kind of romantic, too. Even as he handled the many pressing, quotidian aspects of keeping the light, Porter’s curiosity about the places he lived and the people he met there, his explorations of the natural environment around him, and his nonstop work ethic during 23 years with the Canadian Coast Guard, indeed led to many intrepid deeds.-- Joan Sullivan - The Telegram --

This book was a relaxing and easy read, often enjoyed with a fresh hot brew, that opened my eyes to the adventures of remote living. Adventures of a Lightkeeper by Barry Porter is a great book that will whisk you away to another life, during another time when lighthouses were manned by adventure seeking, brave young souls who didn't mind being keepers of the light.-- Stephanie Collins - Fireside Collections --