THE FORGOTTEN INVASIONS The country is Canada. The year is 1866, the year after the end of the American Civil War. The scene: the "ridge road" in Welland County, Ontario, a dozen miles from Fort Erie. A New York journalist has in need of a rest is joined by an old schoolmate, a professor in University College Toronto. They set out to find a camping place, meet two agreeable Canadian girls -- and find romance, adventure and the remarkable rustic characters of Ontario. They also find a forgotten invasion. In 1866 groups of Irish Americans -- the Fenians -- crossed the Canadian Border to attack British troops at British forts to protest British rule of Ireland. They called themselves the IRA -- the Irish Republican Army. Here is a novel of charm, humor and romance by a remarkable writer illumining important history lost in the mists of Time.

Author Biography

Robert Barr (1849 - 1912) was a Scottish-Canadian short story writer and novelist, born in Glasgow, Scotland. In 1881 Barr decided to "vamoose the ranch," as he stated, and relocated to London, to establish there the weekly English edition of the Detroit Free Press. In 1892 he founded the magazine The Idler, choosing Jerome K. Jerome as his collaborator (wanting, as Jerome said, "a popular name"). He retired from its co-editorship in 1895. In London of the 1890s Barr became a more prolific author-publishing a book a year-and was familiar with many of the best-selling authors of his day, including Bret Harte and Stephen Crane. Most of his literary output was of the crime genre, then quite in vogue.