Ruckles' World: A History of South-East Salt Spring Island (published 2017, 8.5" x 11", 228 pages, 450+ photos, maps, and drawings) was created as part of an effort to save an old farmhouse in the Ruckle neighbourhood by moving it to Ruckle Provincial Park, to be used as an interpretive and administrative centre.

Brenda pulled the book together in eight months, to meet the house-moving deadline. The house owners ended up destroying it. Ruckles' World became something of a consolation prize. It's imperfect, thanks to the rush, but it's rich with facts and family stories. It showcases the diversity of newcomers in the mid- to late 1900s, including a chapter about the Indigenous wives of many British, European, and Hawai'ian men. Asian labourers are also featured.

Table of Contents

Brenda Guiled

Brenda Guiled (aka B. Guild or Guild Gillespie) has been creating books since the mid-1970s. Salt Spring's Horsdal & Schubart published her biography of Captain George Vancouver in 1992, On Stormy Seas: The Triumphs and Torments of Captain George Vancouver. She co-created histories of Riverview and Woodlands psychiatric hospitals, helped Tsawout First Nation with an onnibus book about their culture, completed two detailed family history books, and continues to publish microhistories of Salt Spring Island.