Geoffrey Drayton Explained

Geoffrey Drayton
Birth Date:	13 February 1924^[1]
Birth Place:	near Bridgetown, Barbados
Death Date:	2017 (aged 92–93)
Death Place:	Spain
Occupation:	Writer, novelist, essayist, poet
Alma Mater:	Cambridge University
Notableworks:	Christopher (London: Collins, 1959), Zohara (Secker & Warburg, 1961)

Geoffrey Drayton (13 February 1924 – 2017) was a Barbadian novelist, poet and journalist.

Life

Geoffrey Drayton was born in Barbados, and received his early education there. In 1945, he went to Cambridge University,^[2] where he read economics, after which he spent some years teaching in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, returning to England in 1953.^[3] He worked as a freelance journalist in London and Madrid. From 1954 to 1965 he worked for Petroleum Times, becoming its editor. In 1966 he became a petroleum consultant for the Economist Intelligence Unit.^[4]

Drayton was the author of one volume of poetry, Three Meridians (1950), and two novels: Christopher (1959), which was first published in part in Bim magazine, and Zohara (1961). He also wrote short stories, such as "Mr. Dombey, the Zombie", which was broadcast on the BBC programme Caribbean Voices.

Drayton later lived in Spain, where he died in 2017.^[1]

Works

Novels

• Christopher, London: Collins, 1959; Heinemann Caribbean Writers Series, 1972.
• Zohara, London: Secker and Warburg, 1961.

Poetry

• Three Meridians, Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1950.
• "The Phantom", Bim, no. 5 (February 1945), p. 32
• "Strindbergian Sonata", Bim, no. 6, p. 16
• "Nostalgia", Bim, no. 7, p. 52
• "L'Infinito de Leopardi (Translated from the Italian)", Bim, no. 8, p. 6
• "Memories", Bim, no. 9, p. 12
• "On An Etching By Picasso", Bim, no. 9, p. 57
• "The Ancient Carib", Bim, no. 10, p. 116–117
• "Singing Negress", Bim, no. 11, p. 242
• "Old Black Beggar", Bim, no. 11, p. 246
• "To The Poets Of The Caribbean", Bim, no. 11, p. 248
• "Morgan Lewis", Bim, no. 13, p. 67
• "Negro Divers", Bim, no. 13, p. 67
• "Double Game", Bim, no. 13, p. 6
• "Translation from Catallus (Lyrics No-72: On Lesbia's Infidelity)", Bim, no. 14, p. 120
• "Speculations On Uranium", Bim, no. 16, p. 230
• "The Star", Bim, no. 17, p, 7
• "The Cobbler", Bim, no. 18, p, 106

Short stories

• "Swiss Comedy", Bim, no. 5 (February 1945), pp. 11–13, 57–59
• "Dear Mother", Bim, no. 6, pp. 27–28, 91–93
• "No Honour Among Thieves", Bim, no. 7, pp. 32–33, 105–107
• "Narcissus", Bim, no. 9, pp. 10–12
• "Mr. Dombey", Bim, no. 19, pp. 180-182
• "Manrique", Bim, no. 22, pp. 72–73
• "Christopher", Bim, no. 26, pp. 92–118
• "The Redfern Farewell", Bim, no. 27, pp. 159–162
• "Sunset Over San Remo", Bim, no. 31, pp. 173–175
• "Shadow And Shape", Bim, no. 32, pp. 224–227
• "Return To The Island", Bim, no. 40, pp. 252–256
• "The Moon And The Fisherman", Bim, no. 45, pp. 17–20

Non-Fiction

• "Farrago (Extracts from a notebook)", Bim, no.12, pp. 281–287
• "Revisiting Barbados", Bim, no.14, pp. 83–84

Criticism

• A. N. Forde, "Christopher" (review), in Bim, vol. 8, no. 29 (June/December 1951), p. 64.
• John Harrison, "Three Meridians" (review), in Bim, vol. 4, no. 14 (June 1951), pp. 144–5.
• Kenneth Ramchand, "Terrified Consciousness", in Journal of Commonwealth Literature, no. 7 (July 1969), pp. 8–19.
• Derek Walcott, "Zohara" (review), in Trinidad Guardian, 12 November 1961, p. 26.

External links

• Thomas Armstrong, "Lifting the lid on Geoffrey Drayton and his outsider role in Barbadian literature", Arts Etc.

Notes and References

1. Armstrong, Thomas, "Lifting the lid on Geoffrey Drayton and his outsider role in Barbadian literature", Arts Etc, 2 May 2022.
2. Drayton, Geoffrey, "Return to the Island", BBC Home Service, 28 February 1962 (via Radio Times).
3. Hughes, Michael, "Drayton, Geoffrey", A Companion to West Indian Literature, Collins, 1979, pp. 42–3.
4. Myers, Robin, ed., A Dictionary of Literature in the English Language from 1940 to 1970, Pergamon Press, 1978.