A Tapestry of Jamaica: The Best of SkyWritings - Softcover

Compliation

9781405011891: A Tapestry of Jamaica: The Best of SkyWritings

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1405011890 ISBN 13: 9781405011891

Publisher: Macmillan Caribbean, 2002

An anthology of the best writing, photography and illustration from 30 years' publishing of Air Jamaica's in-flight magazine. Informative, entertaining, educative, amusing, stimulating, there's something here for all tastes, all ages, in this anthology of some 200 articles just bursting with personalities and island colour. This is a book that can be read from cover to cover or just be dipped into, but it really is a book that is difficult to put down!

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Review:

"Open this book at any page. Dive in. Swim around in the insightful stories about people, sports, music, art, culture, nature, history, places, memories and fashion spanning 30 years. Your stay within those pages with probably leave you 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..." --Michael Reckford, The Sunday Gleaner (Jamaica)

From the Publisher:

This article by Odette Dixon was first published in SkyWritings Nov-Dec 2002

A Tapestry of Jamaica - The Best of SkyWritings

by Odette Dixon

I recently described The Best of SkyWritings as Linda Gambrill's baby. And so it is. The "A" collection of the best writing, photography and illustration from the magazine's wonderful 30-year legacy, I remember sitting on the floor with her one day going through 100 issues-at that time our entire publication history-ripping out pages and reminiscing how much we loved this story, how great it was to get that person to write for us and how evocative this photo was.

Now, so many months later, Linda's passion is a real "live" book-a heartfelt tribute to three decades of celebrating life in Jamaica. Many readers of Air Jamaica's inflight magazine have, over the years, asked for a compilation of the best of the magazine's content.

With 30 years of material to choose from, the moment was right. The book is presented in 11 sections: music, food, places, fashion, roots, people, art, sport, history, memories and one devoted entirely to the poems and prose of Miss Lou, Louise Bennett-Coverley, O.M., O.J., MBE, Hon. D.Litt. Just under l50 writers, photographers, cartoonists and illustrators are represented, some several times over. These include such well-known personalities as Barbara Gloudon, Oliver Senior, Omar Davies, Tony Hendriks, the late Sir Philip Sherlock, John Maxwell, Rex Nettleford, Lindy Delapenha and Michael Manley; photograpers Maria Layacona, Cookie Kinkead, Franz Marzouca, Peter Ferguson, Ray Chen and Robin Farquharson; cartoonists Warren Field, George Hay and the legendary Leandro; and illustrators Fiona Godfrey, Louis Matalon and Guy Harvey. Most were Jamaican but many others were recruited from the wider Caribbean, the UK and USA to contribute to this magazine which first saw the light of day in l972.

Our excitement about producing the Best of SkyWritings was tempered by our publisher Tony Gambrill's level-headedness ("No Linda, we cannot put another story in the book! It'll be 500 pages." It is in fact 416 pages.) If Linda was ambivalent about a story he made the swift and smart decision if it was in or out. He wrote the bios for many of the contributors who are no longer with us and navigated the uncertain ocean of a trans-national publishing venture. The project was gifted with the design wisdom of Mark Weinberger, the magazine's first art director and current design director. A few months ago Mark showed me the first layouts for the magazine done in early 1972. That he still has them is a statement of how much the magazine means to him, and that he's still with us after sojourns back home to the US, is indeed a blessing. The rest of the team-Dawn Pe�a, Leeanne Bayley-Hay, Laura Gambrill, Nadine Cheng and Leroy Edwards-put their hearts into making the book a reality, working long hours, soothing frazzled nerves and cheerleading each other on to the end.

Gordon "Butch" Stewart and Chris Zacca, Air Jamaica's Chairman and Deputy Chairman had unconditional faith in The Best of SkyWritings and we thank them.

Our eight sponsors each gave a resounding yes when invited to join us, and I'd like to thank them on behalf of our readers, for without their support The Best of Skywritings would have remained in the 143 issues of the magazine and not in a single volume.

To our friends at Macmillan Caribbean, we say a boisterous Jamaican "Big Up" for believing that this book could happen. In her dedication Linda quotes her heroine the Hon. Louise Bennett Coverley, "Walk good on yuh way an good spirit walk wid yuh; Walk good". For a book rooted in travel this dedication has obvious significance. But it is how Linda ends the dedication, with a simple "Love" that resonates all that SkyWritings has been for these past 30 years-a real tapestry of Jamaica, a love letter-timeless, and full of meaning.

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