He's a natural-born raconteur, a story-teller, a purveyor of insider tales, someone who is capable of ingratiating himself into the confidence of those whom he sets out to probe; their place in the hierarchy of Canadian entrepreuneurship, society, politics. He takes careful notes of their tics, their likes and dislikes, their private lives, their public personnas, the confluence between their ties to government and their business success, and relays that information through the medium of his many published books.

He is a skilled writer, able to turn a phrase in a manner that reflects his very personal writing style. A writing style that he has himself credited with changing the way in which non-fiction writing and the narrative within, he himself, single-handedly altered to reflect modern realities. Much as Ernest Hemingway has been credited with altering the way in which fiction writers, in his time, made language simpler and more accessible in drawing a mental landscape for the modern reader of creative fiction.

It takes some time to get through Peter C. Newman's books. They're distinguished by good writing, yes, but also by the distinctiveness of his penchant to prolixity; exhibiting through the written word a talent for running on, much as a chatty gossip is wont to do. Except that, when confronted by a real, live audience, even one-on-one, he becomes strangely tongue-tied, by his own admission. His mode of communication is through the written, not the spoken word - and lots of them. His books are veritable tomes - both of information that is useful, and of personal tidbits which are unuseful, but titillating to the reader.

He excels at revealing to a curious public the personal predilections and pecadilloes of those he befriends under the guise of a professional writer (which he is), seeming entirely neutral, but whose penchant to reveal all, to engage the reader in his own type of curiosity, unveiling in the process peoples' all-too-human failings related to ego and inner needs attracts his reading public.

In the final analysis, his own self-confidence and skills are entirely bound together within the persona of a egotist. His celebration of self, his writing skills, interpretive acumen, expansive vocabulary and disarming charm in inter-personal relations do become a bit cloying. A dutiful reader, I hate putting a book away without slogging completely through it.

His background in Canadian publishing, with the Toronto Star and Macleans magazine is legendary. And he loves embellishing that legend, making himself larger than life. Recounting his interactions with other well-known literary figures. Most of whom have reason for regret if they ever gave this man reason to note their eccentric behaviour of which he made note and later revealed in his inimitable way.

When I finished Here Be Dragons, I was glad to set it aside. In the end, the tail of the title, "Telling Tales of People, Passion and Power", said it all. Gossip with an acerbic sprinkling of writerly superiority, executed with skill and pride.