Champagne and Meatballs: An Autobiography of Sorts

Active for over 40 years with the Communist Party of Canada, Bert Whyte was an underground historical rogue who challenged the illegality of left-wing politics during the 1930s and onwards. His unforgettable life story spans decades and continents, his wanderlust pushing him onto the Canadian railroad during the Great Depression as a migrant worker, into the controversial politics of Beijing and Moscow as a press correspondent, and out of the RCMP's reach during World War II as a draft dodger.

A cigar-smoking rabble-rouser, Whyte was known by many as a most charming storyteller, never afraid to report the unbiased truth about even his own political brotherhood. A sanitized Communist memoir this is not.

Brought to light and introduced by editor and historian Larry Hannant, Champagne and Meatballs is Bert Whyte's fascinating memoir written months before his death in Moscow in 1984. Brash, funny, irreverent, and entertaining, it highlights an important perspective on world history while delving into the story of the man who was brave enough to live it.