By Ellen Ashton-Haiste

Canada is a gold mine of untold stories and Tim Lawson is setting out to tell them, both through the songs he writes and the books he publishes.

Timberholme Books struck gold last year when The True Intrepid: Sir William Stephenson and the Unknown Agents hit the Top Ten list. Stephenson, better known to the world as the "Man Called Intrepid" was a friend and mentor to Tim, who felt that his unique life story - "an example of a life well lived" - deserved to be told.

The major project on the editing table for this year is another story Tim feels deserves to be told, one of a London Ontario father who went to great lengths - more than 8,000 kilometres, in fact - in support of his son and medical research. Jesse's Journey - A Canadian Story is the story of John Davidson, who crossed this country on foot, an incredible 287-day trek, to raise money for genetic research. It's this research that is most likely to yield a cure for diseases like Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a chronic condition which claims most victims by the third decade of their lives and one which John's son Jesse has coped with for most of his 19 years.

For Tim, John's story is an echo of his own philosophy: that people must work together to make the world a better place. "To me," he says, "the bottom line is so obvious - people should not suffer and the people who are suffering, we have to help them."

That's the bottom line for John Davidson as well. Well aware that time may run out for Jesse while scientists continue to search for answers, he is committed to giving hope to other families affected by genetic conditions.

"I hope that when people read our story, they will understand that even though many families are in a race with time, there is hope for the future and that every one of us can probably do more than we thought we could when we want to help others," he says.

Despite the attention focused on his cross-Canada odyssey and an earlier one in which he pushed Jesse in his wheelchair across Ontario, John seems both pleased and humbled by the continuing interest in his quest.

"I'm not an athlete," he maintains. "I'm just a very average dad and I find it very gratifying to think that someone wants to write a book about how ordinary families can make a difference if they just try.... I am delighted that Timberholme has chosen Jesse's Journey as a story that is worth telling. I hope the story will help all the kids like Jesse."

Tim also looks to the past for inspiration and finds it in the wealth of tales in Canada's colourful history. He was captivated by the writings of a frontier steamboat builder and operator, William Henry Trewolla Olive, who ferried prospectors north during the Klondyke Gold Rush of 1898. Originally published by Timberholme a few years ago as The Olive Diary, the manuscript has been re-released  as The Right Way On: Memoirs of W.H.T. Olive.

Tim felt the original version had too much editing. "I wanted the original manuscript edited just slightly. It didn't need much. I wanted to keep the original flavour, the language. I'm very pleased with the results now.... ," he says. "From the style with which W.H.T. Olive wrote his story, it's obvious that he listened to the stories of the people on the steamboat and went back to his cabin and wrote down the notes, then 30 years later wrote it into a book."

Another of Tim's unearthed treasures is a century-old book of poems by an Ontario poet and naturalist Robert Elliott. Known as "the poet of Plover Mills" (a small southwestern Ontario community), Elliott was a friend and colleague of Tim's great-grandfather, Frank Lawson. Going through the library of his parents' London home, Tim came across the book of poems, published in 1904 by his great-grandfather and a friend, in tribute to Elliott, who died in 1902 at the age of 44.

An environmentalist himself, Tim was attracted to Elliott's sensitivity to nature and humanity and the historic and spiritual journey reflected in the collection.

Timberholme has republished the small volume, titled Lightly Weave in a limited edition of 1,500 numbered copies, with cloth cover and gold foil imprint, each signed by Tim.