"'Couvade' was first published in Great Britain in 1974 by Longman and in 1990 by Dangeroo Press. It appears here in a substantially revised from; 'A pleasant career' is published here for the first time."--Title page verso.

Michael Gilkes has recently been a Quillian Visiting Professor at Randolph-Macon Women's College. Prior to that, he taught at the University of Guyana, the University of the West Indies in Barbados, and Sir Arthur Lewis Community College in St. Lucia. He is a distinguished Caribbean critic, dramatist, lecturer, and more recently a filmmaker. He is the author of Joanstown, winner of the Guyana Prize for best book of poetry; The Last of the Redmen, winner of the Guyana Prize for drama; The Literate Imagination; A Pleasant Career, winner of the Guyana Prize for drama; The West Indian Novel, and Wilson Harris and the Caribbean Novel.