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Rewriting History

Book cover for "Jackson Haines: The Skating King" by Ryan Stevens

"Build something 100 people love, not something 1 million people kind of like." - Brian Chesky

In today's digital era, it is easy to assume that we can find all the answers with just a click. However, when it comes to history, that's not always the reality. 

Libraries, museums, and archives hold a treasure trove of primary and secondary sources that provide a fresh outlook on events that occurred many years ago, sometimes even centuries. During my research for my new book "Jackson Haines: The Skating King", I discovered numerous inaccuracies in the supposed facts about The Father of Figure Skating. 

I delved deep into primary sources from the nineteenth century, completely ignoring the majority of sources from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. My aim was to simply present the facts and allow individuals to form their own opinions about this influential figure in skating history. I'm incredibly proud of the final outcome and genuinely believe there is an audience for a book like this... albeit a smaller one than some might suppose.

Mockup of a cover for a book called "Sequins, Scandals and Shade"

Figure skating has become more and more of a niche sport over the years. Many aficionados of the sport simply do not have a great interest in the sport's history, which is such a shame. They are missing out! If my goal in writing a book was to appeal to a mass audience, I could have easily thrown together something like "Sequins, Scandals and Shade". It would have been have been an easier sell but it wouldn't have been the book I wanted to write.

Book cover for "Jackson Haines: The Skating King" by Ryan Stevens

"Jackson Haines: The Skating King" was not written for the people who'd beat you down with their rolly bag to get the tea on today's greatest figure skating stars. It was written with the passionate readers of this blog in mind - a community of smart and inquisitive skating lovers who genuinely appreciate the origins, evolution and history of this beloved sport. If you enjoy reading the blog, I do think this book will surprise and delight you. Give it a read and let me know what you think!

If you've already read the book, please take a quick minute to leave a short, honest review on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Chapters and fill out a 'Suggest an Item'/'Request an Item' form on your local library's website. These two things will make the world of difference in allowing the book to be discovered by more lovely people.

Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on FacebookTwitterPinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering a copy of the figure skating reference books "The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating", "Technical Merit: A History of Figure Skating Jumps" and "A Bibliography of Figure Skating": https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.