Lorne Elliott's new novel, Beach Reading, takes us back to the early 1970s on the North Shore of Prince Edward Island, where a hilarious and colourful cast of Lorne Elliott characters are engaged in uproarious political, financial, musical, amorous, and ecological shenanigans. Our young hero, Christian, is an eloquently wry and precocious university drop-out, who has never savoured the wonders of women or alcohol. A budding naturalist raised in central Canada, he arrives on PEI for a summer job in the newly-established Barrisway National Park, and sets up camp on the beach. There, he becomes enmeshed in the struggles of the boisterous MacAkrin siblings to remain in their park-enclosed home, rivalries and lustful longings at park headquarters, and the skullduggeries of an Island political campaign. Lorne Elliott gloriously conjures the mischief and zaniness, the lovable rascals and lamentable rogues, of Island life behind the tourist posters. He deftly evokes the kindness and camaraderie of Islanders, and the Island's high-spirited revelry. Beach Reading transforms the Land of Anne and Avonlea into the land of Wallace MacAkrin, the Barley Boys, and Barrisway. "Come play on our Island," as the tourist slogan says, and you'll be laughing with bittersweet delight for days.

Funnyman Lorne Elliott's take on Island life. When Bruno MacIntyre decides to rent his ramshackle cottage to summer tourists, the wacky merriment begins. Lorne Elliott, comic master of mirth and mayhem, takes us to Savage Bay on the south shore of Prince Edward Island, where the hapless Bruno turns to his clever and caustic Aunt Tillie for help in securing tenants. First, the cottage, inherited with a bad reputation from Bruno's ne'r-do-well father, must be renovated. Then, Bruno must duel with his aunt's wry insults and sly plans, a sardonic would-be author, and two torrid tenants. Elliott's celebrated gifts for sharp-witted repartee and vivid characterizations are in full force. So, too, are Elliott's keen eye and ear for our fumbling aspirations, bittersweet banterings, self-deceptions, hard-won wisdom, surprising tenderness, and zany outcomes. The Fixer-Upper--the novella adaptation of his play, Tourist Trap--is classic Lorne Elliott, with a brash and cheeky Maritime flavour.

Lorne Elliott is at his satirical best in his new novel A Few White Lies. Thea, the whip-smart, feisty, resourceful, and haiku-writing teenage narrator, joins the roster of memorably high-spirited and young female protagonists from Matilda to Lisa Moore's Flannery Malone. Thea flies from Haida Gwaii, where she lives with her café-owning mother, to St. John's. Her heroic ordeal is to help her ever-floundering, musician-songwriter father, Grady Jordan, drive a purple limousine, which he claims he won at cards, across Canada. Long estranged from her unreliable father, and possessing both caustic wit and principled integrity, Thea must contend with his spurious schemes and uproarious confabulations. En route, they become enmeshed with Chuck T, a scurrilous and menacing country rock musician, an Indigenous land protest and its media circus, and an opportunistic music star, Daisy Ratzinger, idolized by Thea's best friend, Marcia. En route, like voyageurs before them, Thea and Grady navigate the rapids and rocks of their relationship, struggling to paddle in synch. Lorne Elliott's deep and loving knowledge of Canada, and of our music scene, permeates this road-trip novel with its reversal of parent-child roles. His satire, this time channeled exquisitely through Thea's voice, mind, and spirit, is, as always, compassionately and poignantly humane and laugh-out-loud hilarious.

Maurice the Moose is lonely. So lonely, in fact, that when one day, he is attracted to the call of what he thinks is another moose. He runs far and wide to respond to the call only to find that instead of another friendly moose, it is the call of a moose hunter that has attracted him. Luckily, another moose has answered the call and scares away the hunter. And, most importantly, the Maurice makes a new friend. Maurice the Moose is about making friends in unlikely circumstances as well as the strong bond that is formed when thrown together. Lorne Elliott has performed from Newfoundland to New York City, from Los Angeles to Australia and points in between. Lorne started performing in 1974 as a folk musician in East Coast Canada. At the same time he kept writing fiction as well as songs, monologues and one-liners. The outcome of such a training is a very special show of comedy and music, totally original, entertaining, foolish and uplifting. Along with his unique performance style it is the timelessness of his material, joined with keen observations on today's trends that make Lorne Elliott's work so special. He is the author of Beach Reading and a novella The Fixer Upper. This is his first picture book.

Against the backdrop of Morocco and France, the hero of "The Goat In The Tree" travels in pursuit of both an audience for his stories and his next meal. Fictional travelogue, love story, and the misadventures of a teller of tales, Lorne Elliott sends his narrator tip-toeing around the uncomfortable edge of things, out to where stories bloom, and brings them back for us to enjoy.

The Fixer-Upper is a comedy about Bruno McIntyre who wants to take charge of his own life and his aunt Tillie who does not think that is a very good idea. What could be better? Summer in the Maritimes, cottage renovation and family manipulation. This play explores family relationships and communication between generations: what is expected from the older family members and how the younger ones think they can handle situations.

The tale of Hillyard Philpott, a lad from Newfoundland who, bored with life in his outport, hits the road for Montreal to seek fame and fortune armed only with his wits. Hillyard's wits being what they are, one could expect nothing but trouble. However things are never what they seem.