These are collections of Mike Fileys best work from his popular and long-running Toronto Sun column, "The Way We Were."

For decades Toronto historian Mike Filey has regaled readers with stories of the city’s past through its landmarks, neighbourhoods, streetscapes, social customs, pleasure palaces, politics, sporting events, celebrities, and defining moments. Now, in one lavishly illustrated volume, he serves up the best of his meditations on everything from the Royal York Hotel, the Flatiron Building, and the Necropolis to Massey Hall, the Palais Royale, and the Canadian National Exhibition, with streetcar jaunts through Cabbagetown, the Annex, Rosedale, and Little Italy and trips down memory lane with Mary Pickford, Glenn Miller, Bob Hope, and Ed Mirvish. Filey recounts in vivid detail the devastation of city disasters such as Hurricane Hazel and the Great Fire of 1904 and spins yarns about doughnut shops old and new, milk deliveries by horse, swimming at Lake Ontario’s beaches, Sunday blue laws, and how both World Wars affected Torontonians.

These are collections of Mike Fileys best work from his popular and long-running Toronto Sun column, "The Way We Were."

Mike Filey's "The Way We Were" column in the Toronto Sun continues to be one of the paper's most popular features. In Toronto Sketches Filey brings together some of the best of his columns. Each column looks at Toronto as it was, and contributes to our understanding of how Toronto became what it is. Illustrated with photographs of the city's people and places of the past, Toronto Sketches is a nostalgic journey for the long-time Torontonian, and a voyage of discovery for the newcomer.

Mike Filey’s column "The Way We Were" first appeared in the Toronto Sunday Sun not long after the first edition of the paper hit the newsstands on September 16, 1973. Now, over four decades later, Filey’s column has enjoyed an uninterrupted stretch as one of the newspaper’s most popular features. In 1992 a number of his columns were reprinted in Toronto Sketches: "The Way We Were." Since then another ten volumes have been published. Each column looks at Toronto as it was and contributes to our understanding of how the city became what it is. Illustrated with photographs of the city’s people and places of the past, Toronto Sketches are nostalgic journeys for the long-time Torontonian and a voyage of discovery for the newcomer. This special bundle collects volumes four to six, packed with fascinating information about Toronto’s history. Includes Toronto Sketches 4 Toronto Sketches 5 Toronto Sketches 6