Canada's House: Rideau Hall and the Invention of a Canadian Home [Hardcover]

"Canada’s House has a family album feel, its prose seasoned with info bites and plenty of photographs of Rideau Hall past and present."
—The Globe and Mail

"A heady, handsome volume. . . . A comprehensive cultural and historical account. . . . Stuffed with mouth-watering photographs and assembled with a palpable sense of pride, it pulls off the difficult trick of being both good-looking and scholastically impressive. . . . Each [section is] written beautifully and authoritatively by experts in the field. . . . A gallery of Canadian splendours past and present. . . . This book is mesmerising."
—Quill & Quire

"Canada’s House does the vice-regal residence justice with dozens of new and archival photos; MacMillan’s breezy, anecdotal history; a tour of its classic northern-style gardens by Marjorie Harris; and Anne Desjardins’ description of the Canadian cuisine served there."
—Macleans

"A sumptuous marriage of words and images. . . . Intriguing archival pictures in sepia tones accompany the lush contemporary photography of Nancy Tong, Tony Beck and Rob Fiocca, escorting readers through elegant rooms, letting them wander the grounds and sitting them down to tables filled with the finest Canadian food and wine. . . . [Anne Desjardins] provides a little gourmet escapism. . . . Canada’s House . . . is a loving look at the growth of a Canadian identity in its rooms, its gardens and its menus."
—The Ottawa Citizen

"The time has come to celebrate [Rideau Hall], and a wonderful new books has done just that. . . . Canada’s House is scrapbooking raised to high art — the illustrations, the conversations, and the writing are excellent."
—New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal

"Lavishly illustrated and complemented by an engaging text, the book invites a lengthy perusal. It will give great pleasure to Canadian history buffs and to the general reader as well. . . . Canada’s House is a splendid book, lush, stylish and laced with interesting lore. It is a book to be read and re-read, owned and slowly savoured."
—The London Free Press

In this remarkable book — thoughtful, intimate and stunningly illustrated with archival and original photos — three of the best writers in their fields join with Adrienne Clarkson and John Ralston Saul to tell the story of Canada’s house in the 21st century.

Opening wide the doors, Canada’s House reveals how Rideau Hall has reinvented itself into a place that mirrors the varied identity, gardens and foods of the country — immensely inspiring, alive with a vitality and distinctiveness that is Canada today. Over the last five years, Rideau Hall has been transformed into a place that vitally reflects Canada’s unique contemporary identity: its kitchens are now a hive of activity using indigenous foods and wine from across the country; and its garden has been redesigned into a true Northern Garden — a showcase for Canadian flowers, plants and trees, and organic vegetables. It has become a unique home that represents Canada and Canadians from coast-to-coast.

Three of our leading writers have come together to tell the story of how Rideau Hall has come to reflect so much that is both distinctive and excellent from across Canada:

Margaret MacMillan, Governor-General’s Literary Award winner, contemplates the history of “home” in Canada, and the story of the great house — the hub of the country’s public life since before Confederation — through the people who have given it life.

Marjorie Harris, award-winning garden writer, writes vividly on the Canadian woodland garden, the flowers and plants, as well as the organic vegetable garden that provides the fresh herbs and an impressive proportion of the fruits and vegetables for both daily life and state dinners — essential reading for all who love gardens, as well as those who aspire to creating a Canadian garden.

Anne Desjardins, award-winning Quebec food writer, shows how Rideau Hall has become synonymous with contemporary Canadian cuisine, its cross-country diversity and its riches — from the shellfish and cloudberries of the Maritimes to the cheeses of Quebec; from the oolichan of the West coast to the teas and caribou of the Far North; from the wines of the Okanagan to Niagara, recognized world-wide for their excellence. With an introduction to the country’s leading food and wine producers, as well as thirty original recipes tested for home cooks by Rideau Hall’s famous Chef Oliver Bartsch.

Throughout the book, Adrienne Clarkson and John Ralston Saul share their experiences in helping to bring our national house — a place that reflects Canada as diverse, bountiful, self-confident and rich in achievement — into the 21st century.