Bolton author signs book at Forster's

Véhicule Press author Glenn Carley is launching his first book, Polenta at Midnight: Tales of Gusto and Enchantment in North York, at Forster's Book Garden in Bolton, Saturday, Oct. 20. He'll be on hand from 1-3 p.m. that day.

The Inglese - the English guy - of this real-life story marries into an Italian family and is gently pulled into the court of the family patriarch. Polenta at Midnight is an extravaganza of penetrating imagery, lovingly crafted dialogue and humble reflection. Glenn Carley brings a mastery to the language rarely seen in a first work.

"Polenta is a very simple story about life, love, loss and resolution," Carley said.

"Polenta at Midnight is a beautifully-wrought portrait of a family who moves to Toronto, Canada in the 1950s. The simple plot is derived from the ancient rhythmic magic of Italian daily life. Marvelously rich individual portraits emerge from the close observation of this hard-working, bighearted traditional family. The tales are told charmingly from the perspective of an interloper, the non-Italian boyfriend, who marries the immigrant's daughter and who eventually falls in love with her Mama and Papa too, becoming ever more enchantingly enticed into the Court of Garibaldi, where life is full of gusto and love is everything," said local author Dr. Win Mellor-Hay.

Glenn Carley is a social worker with the Dufferin- Peel Catholic District School Board, and he lives in Bolton, Ontario.

Carley is chief social worker with the Dufferin- Peel Catholic District School Board. He has worked as a play leader and youth worker in London, England, an intake social worker with the Catholic Children's Aid of Metropolitan Toronto, a family worker/therapeutic play specialist with the former Dellcrest Children's Centre in North York, and as a school social worker. He has a Masters of Social Work degree from the University of Toronto.

Glenn took a sabbatical in 2005-6 and began writing in earnest as if there were no tomorrow. Polenta at Midnight: Tales of Gusto and Enchantment in North York is his first work of creative non-fiction.