Trinidad's Doctor's Office

Book excerpt: Picture this: San Fernando, Trinidad, 1920. Longing for the tropics, the young medicus Dr. Vincent Tothill signs up with the Colonial Service and comes to southern Trinidad, where he first works in the oilfields, then in the sugar factory, and eventually sets up private practice. With Scottish wit and a subtle feel for the local parlance, he describes the people he meets and the events that mark the highlights of his sojourn. Tothill will make you laugh out loud with his sometimes picaresque adventures, but his diary is also a valuable anthropological and historical document, describing the language and customs of Trinidadians in that period and the shortcomings that of the medical service of the Colonial Government. This book was first published by Blackie & Sons in Scotland and is lavishly illustrated with contemporary photographs, some taken by Dr. Tothill himself, and others added from Paria Publishing's extensive archives.