Virginia's Eastern Shore is the smallest and least known gem in the crown of the Bay country. By all means, therefore, let Bill Turner tell you about it in East of the Chesapeake. He does so with wit, grace, and a strong feeling for what is best in his native land and its people.--William Warner, author of Beautiful Swimmers I believe, and Turner's writings prove it, that the intricate braiding of land and water breeds more than ducks and rockfish. It breeds a specialness in the human spirit ...All very earthy, very mundane if you will. And all, sieved through the meshes of the author's memory, very full of that wonder of the everyday world, a wonder that Kenneth Grahame in The Wind in the Willows called 'the most priceless possession of the human race.'--Tom Horton, from the Foreword East of the Chesapeake continues the themes and story lines of Chesapeake Boyhood, William Turner's delightful account of growing up on the lower Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake during the years following the Great Depression. Here are Turner's singular accounts of curious characters, changing seasons, natural wonders, and small-town dramas. Once again, he brings the people and landscape of rural Virginia to life as no one else can. His own drawings illustrate the stories, and they, too, win us over with their honesty and charm. Bill Turner writes about characters who might have inspired the likes of Damon Runyon or Erskine Caldwell. Not that Turner is another Runyon or Caldwell. He isn't. He's Bill Turner. An original.--Bob Hutchinson, Norfolk Virginian Pilot Bill Turner has done it again! Another wonderful memoir of growing up and living in a place wonderfully out of sync with the rest of our one-size-fits-all world.--George Reiger, author of Heron Hill Chronicle