Fr. Anthony de Verteuil, a well-known author about Trinidad's history with a large number of titles published over several decades, wrote this charming and interesting book about "Down the Islands." The small and tiny mountaintops that peep out of the ocean between Trinidad's westernmost tip and Venezuela's Paria peninsula have traditionally been the place for weekend homes of many of the country's old families, and generations of children virtually grew up there, learning about the sea and about boats. But there is more to the history of the Western Isles: historical battles were fought between them, pirates hid their loot there in sheltered coves, and the largest centipedes ever beheld by mankind live in their undergrowth!

Independence, Colonial Relics, and Monuments in the Caribbean is a collection of critical perspectives on independence and the legacies of colonialism in the post-colonial Caribbean. The contributors examine themes relating to culture, identity, gender, nationhood, heritage and historic preservation in the post-independent Caribbean. In a twenty-first century context where calls for reparatory justice for the people of the Caribbean who have been disadvantaged by the effects of colonialism have intensified, this book is quite relevant as some chapters examine colonialism through relics, laws, statues and monuments, while other chapters explore the implications of African enslavement, the role of Indian indentureship, the Federation of the West Indies and the effect of the American based Black Lives Movement on the Caribbean.