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Meet Cloverdale author, military historian at Langley Chapters

Cloverdale author, piper and historian James McWilliams will be signing copies of his many books this Saturday.
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Author Jim McWilliams is a long-time resident of Cloverdale.

Cloverdale author, piper and historian James McWilliams will be signing copies of his many books this Saturday at the Chapters in Langley.

He'll have copies of the first two titles in his gripping historical adventure series, the MacHugh Memoirs: Black War-Bonnet and The Fugitives.

McWilliams has also co-authored two non-fiction books on the First World War: The Suicide Battalion and Gas! The Battle for Ypres 1915. Those titles are based on research conducted through interviews of Canadian veterans of the Great War.

He'll have copies of his collection of bagpipe music, A Piper's World, too, a collection of music written and arranged for the bagpipe featuring 99 tunes.

"Hopefully, I will also have a few relics on display – MacHugh's 1810 pipes, his black war bonnet, and me," says McWilliams, a composer and former high school teacher who has set out on an ambitious literary adventure at an age when most people might be thinking about easing into retirement.

Inspired by the thrilling military adventure tales penned by the likes of C.S. Forester (Horatio Hornblower) and Bernard Cornwell (Sharpe's Rifles), McWilliams is endeavouring to complete seven novels in all following the adventures of Rory MacHugh, which have a Canadian angle.

Meet McWilliams between 2 and 5 p.m., March 15 at the Chapters at 20015 on the Langley Bypass.

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