This enlightening, entertaining, profoundly political and poetic gathering of essays by the

Poet Laureate of Jamaica covers a wealth of subjects, from the odd dissociation of a colonial

education to the reality of life in the wider world, the singing of hymns in school and the way

their words stay with us, to the many influences―music, art, storytelling, theatre, cinema, travel,

religion, family life and politics―that nurture our imaginations and her own writing voice.

Taking her title from Kingston's oldest market and downtown meeting place that was almost

destroyed by fire last year, Lorna Goodison introduces us to an extraordinary cast of characters

and range of influences―from finding a black hairdresser in Paris and crying at a movie in

Jamaica to having a life-changing epiphany in New York’s Bottom Line Club or drinking tea with

an old friend and new strangers in London’s Marylebone High Street.