Ted Barris is an award-winning journalist, author, and broadcaster. His writing has regularly appeared in the national press and in magazines as diverse as Air Force, Canada’s History, esprit de corps and Zoomer. He has also worked as host/contributor for most CBC Radio network programs, NPR in the US and on TV Ontario. He taught journalism at Toronto’s Centennial College for 18 years and has written a weekly column/weblog The Barris Beat since 1983.
Barris is the author of 22 bestselling, non-fiction books, including a series of books on wartime Canada: Juno: Canadians at D-Day, June 6, 1944 … Days of Victory: Canadians Remember 1939-1945 … Behind the Glory: Canada’s Role in the Allied Air War … Deadlock in Korea: Canadians at War, 1950-1953 … Victory at Vimy: Canada Comes of Age, April 9-12, 1917 … Breaking the Silence: Veterans’ Untold Stories from the Great War to Afghanistan.
His writing has also been published in such anthologies as The Canadian Encyclopedia … Total Hockey: The Official NHL Encyclopedia … A History of Maple Leaf Gardens … Canada and the Korean War: Histories and Legacies of a Cold War Conflict and a volume of learned papers presented to the Canada-Korea Conference at the U of T.
Other books by Barris include: Rodeo Cowboys, the Last Heroes … Spirit of the West … Positive Power: Story of the Edmonton Oilers...Making Music: Profiles from a Century of Canadian Music co-authored with his father Alex Barris … 101 Things Canadians Should Know About Canada and Fire Canoe, a Mark Twain-like retelling of western Canada’s 19th century steamboat history.
In 2011, he was one of 19 civilians to receive the Minister of Veterans’ Affairs Commendation. The citation reads: “Ted Barris has made such exemplary contributions … benefiting veterans and making manifest the principle that Canada’s obligation to all who have served in the cause of Peace and Freedom, must not be forgotten.”
His 17th book, The Great Escape: A Canadian Story, won the 2014 Libris Non-Fiction Book of the Year Award (shared with astronaut Chris Hadfield).
In 2018, Dam Busters: Canadian Airmen and the Secret Raid against Nazi Germany was published. The RCAF Association awarded Ted Barris and Dam Busters its 2018 NORAD Trophy for “unequalled contribution to the preservation of Air Force values, traditions, history and heritage.”
The next year, Rush to Danger: Medics in the Line of Fire was longlisted for the 2020 Charles Taylor Prize for Non-Fiction in Canada.
Battle of the Atlantic: Gauntlet to Victory was published in the fall of 2022; the same year, Ted received Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Award, recognizing “extraordinary contributions to our community and Canada.”
Battle of Britain: Canadians in Their Finest Hour was published in 2024; and on the heels of its publication, Ted Barris went to Rideau Hall in Ottawa for his investiture as a Member of the Order of Canada, “for advancing our understanding of Canadian military history as an acclaimed historical author, journalist and broadcaster.”
Battle of Britain: Canadian Airmen in Their Finest Hour
“Never in the field of human conflict…” are Churchill’s words that set the 113 days of the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940 apart from all others, as the greatest aerial battle in history. As the German Luftwaffe sought to destroy the Royal Air Force, gain air superiority, and invade the British Isles, Commonwealth fighter pilots scrambled from U.K. airfields day after day and flew Hurricane and Spitfire fighter aircraft to thwart Hitler’s plan. They won but paid dearly.
Among the 2,937 aircrew in this first test of Allied skill, resilience, and courage, over 100 pilots flew with the “Canada” patch on their shoulder, and another 200 erks (ground crew) kept their fighters in the air. And Churchill orated that never was “… so much owed by so many to so few.”
In his 22nd book of nonfiction, Battle of Britain: Canadian Airmen in Their Finest Hour, Ted Barris has assembled unknown stories of Canadian airmen, ground crew, as well as engineers, aeronautical designers, medical officers and civilians who answered the call and turned back the very real threat of Nazi invasion. You know the outcome of the Battle of Britain, but now you’ll meet the Canadians who helped secure victory in this WWII life-and-death struggle.
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