Desbarats wrote 13 books, including "René: A Canadian in Search of Country", a best-selling biography of René Lévesque; "Somalia Cover-Up: A Commissioner's Journal", a book about his stint on the Somalia Inquiry;, and "Guide to Canadian News Media", a standard journalism text; as well as several children's books and a 2002 stage play, "Her Worship", about controversial London mayor Dianne Haskett. With the cartoonist Aislin, he co-wrote one of the first books of comics history in Canada, "The Hecklers: A History of Canadian Political Cartooning and a Cartoonists' History of Canada". He was later a contributor to "The Globe and Mail", the "Ottawa Citizen" and "The London Free Press", as well as an active community volunteer in London.