Title: The Best of Skywritings
Editor: Linda Gambrill
Reviewed by: Michael Reckord
FEELING RUNDOWN? Out of sorts? Depressed by the atmosphere of economic stagnation and news items about man's inhumanity to man, at home and abroad?
Here's the perfect antidote.
Open this book at any page. Plunge in. Dive deep into the words and pictures. Swim around in the stories, insightful stories about people, sports, music, art, culture, nature, history, places, memories and fashion spanning 30 years of the publication of Skywritings, Air Jamaica's inflight magazine.
Stay in the book as long as you want. You'll have to come up for air long before you've completed more than a fraction of its 415 pages.
Your stay within those pages will probably leave you feeling breathless (with awe), but you'll be refreshed, too. This is a book to escape into, one which reminds what a wonderful country Jamaica really is, current negative appearances notwithstanding.
Covering the period September 1972 (when Skywritings was first published) to August 2002, the anthology is divided into the following major sections music, Miss Lou, places, food, roots, fashion, people, arts, sport, history, and memories.
There's also a foreword by publisher, Anthony A. Gambrill, essentially expressing thanks to the many editors, writers, photographers, illustrators and artists who have helped the large production team with the year-long publication project
There's an introduction by Skywritings editor, Odette Dixon Neath, which informs us that a fundamental vision of her magazine is that in "Jamaica and the Caribbean, life is good and our people are truly blessed." Naturally, this point of view permeates the anthology, essentially a showcase of the "best" of Jamaica.
The final section of the publication contains brief bio-sketches of its 60 contributors, comprising writers, photographers and illustrators. Some not only write about important topics but also are themselves, as major Jamaican figures, the subjects of articles.
One, Louise Bennett -- the personality who features most often in the work -- contributes numerous stories, and is celebrated by Sandy McIntosh and Mervyn Morris. Rex Nettleford writes about the National Dance Theatre Company, which he co-founded, and Sonia Mills writes about him as being a "Renaissance man."
Contributors from whom we can get no new writing, because they have passed on, include Alex D. Hawkes ("In Search of the Perfect Patty"), Dwight Whylie ("Quintessential Blue Mountain Coffee"), Ken Maxwell ("The Real Taste of Jamaica"), Ivy Baxter ("Dance Wi Dance"), Calvin Bowen ("The Lighter Side of Norman Manley"), Dennis Scott ("Gonzales - A Jamaican Artist"), Michael Manley ("Atlas George Headley"), Philip Sherlock ("The Arawaks Before Columbus"), Carol Reckord ("All Aboard," about a train ride to Montego Bay) and H.P. Jacobs ("Germany in Jamaica").
Since some contributors have more than one item, the articles and photographs run into several hundred. This makes for an unusually rich volume.
Among all the variety -- of photographic and textual subjects, of writing styles, of humour -- one constant is quality. It's always high.
Because they were written for inflight reading, the articles are quite short; you'll get through the longest in 20 minutes.
But that doesn't mean they are shallow. You can get very deep in just two minutes; ask David Lee (page 326), the Jamaican who holds the world record in unassisted constant ballast
diving.
The cover illustration, one of the scores of gorgeous images in the anthology, is a painting of the hills of St. Ann by Mallica 'Kapo' Reynolds. It offers the promise of a joyous world inside.
That promise is fulfilled. Gloriously. Beautifully. This book is a treasure. Every home should have a copy.
Publishers: Creative Communications Inc. and Macmillan Publishers
