While Raffi Cavoukian tells a success story – a 1960s dropout achieves wealth, international fame, and favourite-son status in Canada – it is not to be confused with the usual self-promoting celebrity autobiography.

It is also a moving story of exile and immigration beginning with the Armenian genocide of 1915. Raffi’s grandfather escaped by making a portrait of the oppressor – a Turkish general – and eventually reached Cairo where he operated a photography studio. From there years later his son, Raffi’s father, brought his family to Canada and carried on the family tradition. His retouched colour portraits of royalty and politicians earned him the name “the Karsh of colour.”

The father’s professional success could not alleviate the pains of transplantation. Raffi was robbed of a childhood, if that term implies a carefree, playful time. The tensions of adolescence were aggravated by the Old World family structure, and marriage outside the Armenian community increased the problems. Happily the tensions eased over the years and family unity and affection prevailed.

Raffi rebelled against two generations who made flattering portraits of the rich and powerful by aligning himself with the powerless and disenfranchised. His rapport with children and his work as a children’s entertainer brought unimagined rewards. Yet he spurned the subsequent offers of lucrative deals for film and television, and used his popularity and authority for a different purpose. He became an important spokesman for the welfare of children and for the protection of endangered species and the environment.

As a consequence, his story achieves the dimension of a moral journey. It would, however, be misleading to make the book sound more portentous than it is, for Raffi makes no claims to philosophical or political sophistication. And yet, his sound and timely ideas expressed with frank simplicity give his life story the same wide appeal that has characterized his stage performances.