Billy Budge

Billy Budge was born in the fishing village of Neil's Harbour in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia in 1948. At the age of seven, he moved with his family to the remote island of St. Paul where his father served as lighthouse keeper. Five years later, his family moved to another lighthouse station on the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia. It was here, that Billy went to school for the first time in grade seven and received his high school diploma in 1966. For the next thirty years, he worked as a telephone technician in Halifax and in northern Cape Breton.

In 2004, his first book Memoirs of a Lightkeeper's Son was published by Pottersfield Press. It focuses on the five years he spent with his family growing up on St. Paul Island. He currently resides in the oceanside community of Ingonish, Nova Scotia with his wife Audrey.