About

“Let’s Forefoot da Sonovabitch—a great title for any book, but Brian Nagel’s masterful collage of prairie stories walks off with all the honours. It’s a cross between W.O. Mitchell’s Who Has Seen the Wind and Brent Butt’s Corner Gas. Here is uproarious humour transfused with the pains of youthful discovery. It is funnier than Holden Caulfield, rich with the foibles and furies of prairie life on the Canadian plains.”
– Ken Mitchell, Poet, Novelist, Playwright, Order of Canada and Saskatchewan Order of Merit

“Snaring wild horses while drunk ... playing Parallel Universe with his sister ... running away from home ... learning to chew snuff ... and the ritual of the Saturday night bath, Brian Nagel captures the grit, passion and humour of rural Saskatchewan as he draws us into the joys of family and a past that won’t let go. A born storyteller, he opens our eyes to another time when a tough life was managed with wit and wisdom.”
– Neil McKinnon, author of Tuckahoe Slidebottle, Finalist for Stephen Leacock Humour Award

"First and Second Kings, Maurice and Harold" is a remarkable tale of a ranch wife’s fifty-year friendship with millionaire bachelor brothers who lived like paupers in the Porcupine Hills of southwestern Alberta. Mary-Jo Burles takes you into the lives of the eccentric King Brothers. With her trademark rustic eloquence she vividly describes what made the pioneer cattle ranchers legends and how they amassed the fortune they left behind. The media called Maurice and Harold King “Hillbilly Millionaires” but Mary-Jo Burles always called Maurice and Harold friends.

"Millionenschwere Kirchenmäuse" ist die bemerkenswerte Geschichte einer fünfzig Jahre währenden Freundschaft einer Rancherin zu Maurice und Harold King, zwei Brüdern, die trotz ihres Vermögens wie arme Leute lebten. Mary-Jo Burles nimmt uns mit in das Leben dieses exzentrischen Bruderpaares. In ihrem eigenen bodenständigen Stil beschreibt sie lebendig wie diese Pioniere der Viehzucht zu Legenden wurden und es schafften ihr sechs Millionen Dollar Vermögen anzuhäufen. Die Medien bezeichneten Maurice und Harold King als „Hillbilly Millionäre“, aber für Mary-Jo Burles waren sie einfach Freunde.