Books
Many of my books have been co-authored in a variety of non-fiction subjects – including health, education, human rights, yacht design, boatbuilding, and cruising. Several books are clamouring to be released from my pen. Be sure to add your name to my email list at the bottom of this page, and I’ll happily notify you when they (and others) will be having their coming-out parties! Meanwhile, enjoy browsing the books listed below. You may click on their titles to order.
"The smallest couple of bookshelves in our house…"
Health
Saving Farmland: The Fight for Real Food
by Nathalie Chambers with Robin Alys Roberts & Sophie Wooding
In 2012, I was asked by our local, organic farmer, Nathalie Chambers, to help write Saving Farmland: The Fight for Real Food. After almost half a year of weekly recorded interviews with Nathalie, I wrote Chapters 1-7 and 12-14 while Sophie wrote Chapters 8-11. Sophie and I met weekly, discussing and editing each other’s work – and of course, Nathalie read it all before publication.
Nancy J. Turner, Emiritus Professor, Ethnobotanist and Author, commented:
"I could scarcely tear myself away from this book. The words and stories resonate so completely with my own experiences and with everything I have learned about sustainability and food production. The book is, at once, compellingly personal and yet universal in its message and the lessons it brings. It focuses simultaneously on one particular farm in rural Saanich—the iconic Madrona Farm—and the potential and promise of farms everywhere and anywhere. It is a book about a love affair with the land and how to build strong, enduring relationships with each other and with our home places. Anyone with interest in food and the future of the world will want to read it and will be inspired by it."
In her Foreword to Saving Farmland, Dr. Turner explains further:
“This is a joyful and inspiring story, a love story, in fact. We learn about people who form bonds with each other over common goals, about the deep and enduring connections to place, about selflessness and fortitude and positive energy. We see how some people can inspire others to follow their dreams and how personal profit is not always the route to happiness. We see that even the seemingly impossible can be possible if people work in concert, if imaginations can be sparked if we take on responsibility for caring for and protecting those things that really sustain us in this world. This book is uplifting, inspiring, and hopeful. It combines stories about real heroes with profound lessons about energy, nutrient and water cycling, food webs, pollination, and other natural processes. It leads by example, and it provides a template for preserving and enhancing farmland anywhere and everywhere.”
Amy Reiswig’s Sept.2015 article about Saving Farmland includes:“…A longtime writer and Madrona customer now in her sixties, Roberts has herself been an activist (at the forefront of the equal marriage fight) and is driven by caring and a passion for what’s right and fair for people—like the right to healthy, affordable food.”
“…Produced by three generations of women committed to sustainable food, it’s an expansive story that begins with farms lost and ends with farms saved in trust—a story told with passion, humour and a combination of great urgency and affection. At once personal, political and philosophical… It’s all about principles. Those principles centre on how we, as daily decision-makers—be it as buyers, growers or policy setters—see the Earth and one another.”
“…Saving Farmland is ultimately about decision: to choose hope over global grief, community empowerment over corporate dominion, protection over peril, a sustainable feast over a slow road to famine.”
(For Reiswig’s full article, go to https://focusonline.ca/node/911)
“…Produced by three generations of women committed to sustainable food, it’s an expansive story that begins with farms lost and ends with farms saved in trust—a story told with passion, humour and a combination of great urgency and affection. At once personal, political and philosophical… It’s all about principles. Those principles centre on how we, as daily decision-makers—be it as buyers, growers or policy setters—see the Earth and one another.”
“…Saving Farmland is ultimately about decision: to choose hope over global grief, community empowerment over corporate dominion, protection over peril, a sustainable feast over a slow road to famine.”
(For Reiswig’s full article, go to https://focusonline.ca/node/911)
Education
Puppy Aries (A Fun Little Book for English Language Learners)By Robin Alys Roberts
In 2013, a South Korean teacher asked me a favour. When she was studying English with me for a year while I was tutoring at home, she’d met Aries, our very friendly Labradoodle. Once back in South Korea, she asked if I would create a little story about Aries that she could use with her students, so they could build their English vocabulary in a fun way. With lots of photos and basic vocabulary, including natural word repetitions, this little book helped her new English language learners understand both our Canadian puppy culture and a new language.
In 2013, a South Korean teacher asked me a favour. When she was studying English with me for a year while I was tutoring at home, she’d met Aries, our very friendly Labradoodle. Once back in South Korea, she asked if I would create a little story about Aries that she could use with her students, so they could build their English vocabulary in a fun way. With lots of photos and basic vocabulary, including natural word repetitions, this little book helped her new English language learners understand both our Canadian puppy culture and a new language.
Teacher’s Manual for the University of Victoria’s Tutorial Self-Access CentreBy Robin Alys Roberts
During the 1990s, I was immersed in article writing, editing, and teaching English to foreign students (first at Victoria’s Immigrant and Refugee Centre, then at the University of Victoria). I concluded that decade of work in 2000 by writing the Teacher’s Manual for the University of Victoria’s Tutorial Self-Access Centre – consisting of 88 pages plus a computer disc.
During the 1990s, I was immersed in article writing, editing, and teaching English to foreign students (first at Victoria’s Immigrant and Refugee Centre, then at the University of Victoria). I concluded that decade of work in 2000 by writing the Teacher’s Manual for the University of Victoria’s Tutorial Self-Access Centre – consisting of 88 pages plus a computer disc.
Human Rights
The new century bounced my involvement in books into a surprisingly different area that provided us with a whole new education. Having been asked to help as litigants for four years in Canada’s equal marriage legal case, I have been eternally grateful to the open-minded attitude of my family. I have contributed to the following books:
Best Date Ever: True Stories That Celebrate Lesbian Relationships
© 2007, Edited by Linda Alvarez, Published by Alyson Books, New York, USA.
For this book, I wrote the concluding chapter (pages 178-190), called The Date of Our Lifetime.
For this book, I wrote the concluding chapter (pages 178-190), called The Date of Our Lifetime.
Same-Sex Marriage: The Personal and the Political
by Kathleen A. Lahey & Kevin Alderson.
In this book, we are interviewed in Part II: The Personal and the Political, (Robin Roberts & Diana Denny, Victoria, B.C.) pages 149-162.
In this book, we are interviewed in Part II: The Personal and the Political, (Robin Roberts & Diana Denny, Victoria, B.C.) pages 149-162.
Nautical Books
Practical Ferro-Cement BoatbuildingBy Jay R. Benford & Herman Husen© 1970-72, 216 Pages, International Marine Publishing Company, Camden, Maine 04843, USA
I helped in editing and writing this resource for both yacht designer Jay Benford and boatbuilder Herman Husen.
I helped in editing and writing this resource for both yacht designer Jay Benford and boatbuilder Herman Husen.
Critiques Included:
“This is unquestionably one of the best manuals to appear… a real advance.”- National Fisherman
“No matter what other book you have to guide you, you should have this one as well.”- RUDDER Magazine
“We’d say it’s essential.”- BOATING Magazine
“The definitive work on the subject.”- NOR’WESTING Magazine
Over the years we worked together, Jay and I wrote and published several of his yacht design books. Some of these include:
Cruising Yachts
© 1983200 pages, co-authored with Jay R. Benford, Tiller Publications, P.O. Box 447, St. Michaels, MD.21663, USA.
After many years of living aboard, sailing, and admiring Jay Benford’s yacht designs, I was happy to co-author this showcase book of his practical, beautiful power and sailing yachts – ranging in size from 14 feet to 131 feet.
Cruising Designs
© 197684 pages, Jay R. Benford & Assoc., Inc.
The Benford 30: A Philosophy and a Yacht© 1977 24 pages, Jay R. Benford & Assoc., Inc.
Books Waiting to Be Launched – Parenting, Peace, and Travel
Planting Pictures Along a High Way to
Harmonious ParentingThis book on jumping out of negative parenting traps is on its way to a publisher. What if – as a parent at your wit’s end – you could reach inside a book, flip to the chapter highlighting your frustration, and find a quick answer? It includes fun illustrations to help relieve tension and offers many meaningful activities and links to help guide both parents and kids into a shining adulthood of compassion, curiosity, partnership, and true kindness.
On Greek TimeIn 1989-90, we 2 parents and our 2 younger children – aged 10 and 11 – flew off for a year of adventure. On a meagre budget, we'd planned to spend only 2 weeks in Europe, before explorinig Greece and Turkey. To our surprise, so many kind people offered us free accommodation, that we were welcomed for a total of 3 1/2 months in England, Wales and Ireland, as well as shorter stays in Belgium, France, Switzerland and Italy.
The Man Celestials Called “The Peacemaker” The biography of a man who demonstrated the epitome of peace: John Ker Davis. Born an American in China in 1882, he grew up speaking 4 Chinese dialects fluently, read and wrote Chinese, and translated for those who couldn't speak each other's dialects. Landing in the USA for the first time at age 12, he eventually gained his Master’s degree, then encouraged two friends to return to China with him – where they paddled down the Yangtze River. After his friends left, he stayed in China and taught, eventually becoming American Consul General to China.
During the 1927 uprising in China, he was able to arrange a temporary truce to allow foreigners to leave safely – for which US President Calvin Coolidge gave him a letter of commendation. After being posted to London, England, then Seoul, Korea, and Vancouver, Canada, he was sent to Warsaw, Poland, in 1941. There, he arranged another truce so foreigners could leave Warsaw safely during World War II. For this, he received a second letter of commendation from US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Eventually, he returned to Vancouver where he retired. (He also happened to be my grandfather, and I felt so grateful to live close to this calm, quiet, unassuming soul for my first 22 years.) ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Remember to add your name to my email list, and I’ll be honoured to notify you when these intriguing, informative books come out.
During the 1927 uprising in China, he was able to arrange a temporary truce to allow foreigners to leave safely – for which US President Calvin Coolidge gave him a letter of commendation. After being posted to London, England, then Seoul, Korea, and Vancouver, Canada, he was sent to Warsaw, Poland, in 1941. There, he arranged another truce so foreigners could leave Warsaw safely during World War II. For this, he received a second letter of commendation from US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Eventually, he returned to Vancouver where he retired. (He also happened to be my grandfather, and I felt so grateful to live close to this calm, quiet, unassuming soul for my first 22 years.) ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Remember to add your name to my email list, and I’ll be honoured to notify you when these intriguing, informative books come out.