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[written in August, 1966]

The authors of these stories were members of a gang of sixth-formers at St. Stanislaus College, most of whom completed their A-level exams in 1966, a month after Guyana achieved independence. It was not a gang in the sense that we had a specific purpose or aim, but rather a group people thrown together by time and circumstance who chose to spend their spare time together, whether it be to study or to lime. I suppose I was leader of the gang by default, as it were, and because I took the trouble to do what minimal organizing was necessary for our various study and other sessions... St. Stanislaus [was in those days] of course a boys’ school, but there were a couple of convent girls eagerly conscripted into our gang, since they attended our sixth form for classes in subjects not taught at the convent. In addition, one of our members was from the lower sixth (principally, I believe, because he happened to be a cousin of mine and tended to hang around with me (us). There was also one member of the gang who was a fifth-former, but was permitted to take A-level Art (at which he was brilliant) and simply assumed that he was entitled thereby to be a member of the gang. Here are brief descriptions of the members of the gang (and therefore the authors of the stories):

[Victor Vibert Nunes – Head boy of the College, leader of the group: serious and scholarly with strong organizational and planning skills; his birth certificate describes him as a ‘mixed native of Guyana’ and he claims that a measure of Amerindian blood is part of that mix. Good at languages which he took at A-level.]

Desmond Stewart Arthur – Desi lives for literature, at which he excels; has written plays which have been performed at college; sensitive, loyal and probably homosexual. He’s like a brother to Hilary Sutton and is specially fond of Nickie Calistro.

Geoffrey Anselm deMattis – Of Portuguese extraction but with dark brown skin; mischievous, inclined to be chubby and brilliant at the sciences. With a surname like his it was in the nature of our Catholic high-school wit to nickname him ‘Nunc’ deMattis. Nunc is an only child with wealthy parents who have more-or-less adopted the gang which is always over at his house.

Hilary Augusta Sutton – ‘High brown’, upper middle-class convent girl from an old Georgetown family which lives in a large wooden house with a tower. She tends to be touchy about class and propriety. She did Maths and Physics in our science sixth.

Jamila Muneshwar – Indian with smooth, beautiful, very dark skin (almost purple, like a jamoon, which is her nickname). She is the daughter of a prominent surgeon and did History and Geography in our sixth form.

Hilton Aubrey Llewellyn Seaforth – Called ‘Prince Hal’ because of his initials; deputy head-boy, tall and dark with stately, aristocratic bearing. Aloof and monumentally calm, Hal is the son of a head-teacher and afraid of no-one. Brilliant at History and Languages and is expected to win a scholarship.

Valmiki Madramootoo – Indian, son of a wealthy businessman who owns several cinemas and nightclubs. Light-skinned, grey-eyed, handsome and epicurean, Val is our expert on films, food and fashion. He did Literature and Modern Languages.

Terrence Gregory Wong – Known as ‘Tennis Roll’ because of his predilection for tennis rolls with cheese. Short, porcupine-haired, Chinese, T. Roll is playful and somewhat naive, though brilliant at Maths and Physics. He is impulsive and always falling in love.

Mark Andrew McWatt – First cousin to V.V. Nunes, Mac is in the lower sixth. The son of a District Commissioner, he knows a lot about the interior and the rivers of Guyana and has been writing poems about these. He is taking Literature, Latin and History.

Alexander Joseph Fonseca – Still a fifth-former, he’s the baby of the group and diminutive to boot (hence his nickname: ‘Smallie’). He makes up for his small stature by being loud and assertive; he’s a prodigious and gifted artist with a foul tongue and a vocation to the priesthood.

John Dominic Calistro – Came into our Sixth form from a school in the interior. During term-time he boards in the home of V.V. Nunes, his cousin, since his parents live in the interior. He’s known as ‘Nickie’ and is always telling stories about his large, half-Amerindian family: parents, uncles, cousins, all of whom live in one huge house. Superstitious, fun-loving and illogical, Nickie did English, Geography and History. The smallest amount of alcohol puts him into a deep sleep.

[I was tempted, at this distance from the sixties, to alter the above brief ‘portraits’ by removing the ethnic references which now seem at least gauche (by most standards, though mild perhaps, in terms of the rampant racial polarization in contemporary Guyana), but I decided that they help date the document and give, I think, an accurate indication of the preoccupations of Georgetown society at the time. Also, I did not want to appear to be quarrelling petulantly with Victor’s descriptions.]