Читать книгу Tilted - Steven Skurka - Страница 6

I am reminded of the All in the Family episode in which Edith Bunker is attending her high school reunion and is asked by a former classmate to recount what has happened in her life since high school. Edith then proceeds to explain, in painful detail, the precise vicissitudes of her life from her teenage years to the present.

I shall resist any temptation to follow Edith Bunker’s example and thank my bar mitzvah teacher. I would, however, like to highlight two English teachers who shaped my writing skills in my formative high school years, Mr. Moore and Mr. Woolard. Howard Engel, a prominent Canadian writer, was the first person who told me that I had some writing talent and urged me to pursue it. I studied with Martin Amis at the Humber Summer Workshop in Creative Writing and he was very encouraging.

I interviewed a myriad of sources for this book and only a few requests were denied. Socrates remained unavailable to explain the Socratic Method. Conrad Black, by contrast, was always helpful and accommodating in our exchanges.

Kirk Howard had faith in this book, and I am grateful to him as well as everyone else at Dundurn Press. Jennifer McKnight, my editor, provided me with expert guidance. My agent, Margaret Hart, was a reliable source of support.

The timeline used throughout the book is reprinted with the permission of Maclean’s magazine. In a couple of instances, the first names of individuals unrelated to the trial were altered to protect their identity.

The sketches from the courtroom were prepared by Cheryl Cook.

Finally, I would like to make special mention of my parents, Fred and Rene Skurka, and my grandparents, Morris and Annie Levitt and Jack and Clara Skurka, who greatly influenced my life.