The Varnished Truth
about Byron Rempel

Byron Rempel ran away from his Mennonite home in a Canadian prairie village to join a Parisian circus, which was followed by a turn as assistant elephant caretaker for a travelling Italian circus. A fascination for jungle life led to a gig as writer-in-residence for a Maya archaeological dig in Belize. Among other professions, Byron has tended bar in London, picked grapes in Beaujolais and picked stones in Manitoba.

Since the 1980s, Byron has written journalism for newspapers, magazines and online publications. He has penned both a monthly humour column and a column interpreting Quebec for Western Canadians, edited novels, and wrote and edited textbooks for Belizean schools. He is the author of three novels, a double-biography of twin skiers, and an autobiographical exaggeration. Byron currently lives on a ranch in Quebec’s Laurentian hills with his wife and a menagerie of animals, both domestic and untamed.