Writing on Stone

Michael Elcock emigrated to Canada from Scotland when he was twenty-one years old. Since then, his life and travels have taken him to many parts of the world—and back to Scotland, many times. In Writing on Stone, Elcock reflects on the immigrant experience, and the questions of memory and identity that come with leaving roots behind, and putting down new ones. Elcock's shrewd observations and humour take us behind the masks that old countries, and new countries, project—and to the importance of people to our reality. To his surprise, Elcock finds near the end of his exploration that he is not the first member of his family—as he'd supposed—to travel this emigrant route. From the west coast of Canada to the west coast of Scotland—and along the route of the Mounties' Great Trek.