For fifty years, Gordon Rohlehr was the regular correspondent, sometimes confidant and always the critic who best understood what Kamau Brathwaite's poetry achieved. In revisiting the trajectory of this mutually enriching relationship, what stands out is Rohlehr's independence of view and his willingness to say when he thought his friend was wrong or unreasonable. Moving in its portrayal of a friendship frequently at odds with the political direction of the Caribbean world, this is also an essential record of the making of Caribbean literature.

Gordon Rohlehr (1942-2023) was emeritus Professor at the University of the West Indies at St Augustine. Unquestionably one of the Caribbean's finest critics and thinkers, his work covers both literature and popular culture, particularly Calypso.