Welcome to Chateau Lane Publishing, a small family-based business based in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, that specializes in biographies, personal finance and fiction.
Latest release profiles renowned politician
Unbreakable: The Ujjal Dosanjh Story is the first authorized biography of BC’s — and Canada’s — first Indo-Canadian premier. This colourful, readable, inspiring profile reveals the “inside story” behind the public face, from constituency politics to the federal and world stage.
Author Doug Welbanks, a close friend of Ujjal and his wife “Rummy” since their college days, details the hurdles the couple faced as newcomers and how they fought for the rights of immigrant women, the just treatment of farm workers, and social justice for all.
Their life story is one of family, friendship, and two people who have remained true to their beliefs and values through the highs and lows of a remarkable journey. Featuring a foreword by the Honourable Bob Rae and 70+ black and white photographs.
A woman whose good works were legendary
Unbreakable is the second book in a series celebrating important and overlooked Canadians. In 2011 Chateau Lane launched From Lost to Found: The May Gutteridge Story, about the woman who, through her charitable work in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, brought comfort and dignity to thousands of individuals over 30 years.
Again, Doug knew the subject of this biography personally: from 1974 until May’s death in 2002. Through a collaboration of friends, priests and co-workers, May Gutteridge’s story has been revived and lives in libraries and on the Internet.
How this publishing journey began
Douglas P. Welbanks began Chateau Lane Publishing in 2004 with a self-help guide for separating families entitled Finances After Separation. Featuring an easy-to-read, comprehensive approach to the subject for a non-legally trained audience. As financial and matrimonial laws constantly change, the book became unavailable in 2008.
A series of other short financial books followed. The publication Julius Seizure (2006) highlighted the student loan debtor. Almost Empty (2013) investigated the instant gratification culture, going back to Thorstein Veblen and Max Weber for insights into where the materialism of the 1950s and beyond had its start.
A recent foray into family fiction
Chopsticks and Butterflies appeared in 2013, a first novel for Douglas P. Welbanks. Similar to many novels, and as Doug has mentioned repeatedly, “It’s only taken a lifetime to write.” <please link title if more info will appear on the website>
The story probes the troubled social conditions of drugs in high school, marital breakdown and the impact upon children. It foregrounds a society precipitously poised on a hallowed belief in false promises and the idea that a second chance is the ultimate cure for failure.