John MacLachlan Gray

A book about the irreverent history of the tattoo, an award-winning musical about a World War I flying ace, and a weekly newspaper column in The Globe and Mail are just a few of John Maclachlan Gray’s many accomplishments.

In 1978, he wrote and composed (with Eric Peterson) Billy Bishop Goes to War, which has become one of the most successful home-grown Canadian plays in theatrical history. It won the Governor General’s Award, the Chalmers Award and the Los Angeles Drama Critic’s Award. He is best known for his stage musicals and for his two seasons as a satirist on CBC TV’s “The Journal”, where he was known as a social critic on cultural and political issues.

When he is not penning musicals like Rock and Roll or Don Messer’s Jubilee, he writes screenplays, teleplays and books.

He has won a National Magazine Award and six Western Magazine Awards, as well as several honours for his stage and film work, and he was awarded the Order of Canada. In the fall of 2000 Gray published the Order of Canada. In the fall of 2000 Gray published a thriller entitled A Gift for the Little Master and is currently at work on The Fiend in Human.