Yet one day when I was waiting there I was suddenly very much afraid. The door was open to the sunlight , someone was whistling near the stables, but I was afraid. I was certain that hidden in the room (behind the old black press?) there was a dead man's dried hand, white chicken feathers, a cock with its throat cut, dying slowly, slowly, Drop by drop the blood was falling into a red basin and I imagined I could hear it. No one had ever spoken to me about obeah - but I knew what I would find if I dared to look. Then Christophine came in smiling and pleased to see me. Nothing alarming ever happened and I forgot, or told myself I had forgotten (Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea, pages 26-7).

Jean Rhys was born in Roseau, Dominica and spent sixteen years there before moving to Europe. She published a number of well received works before virtually disappearing from the public eye. Wide Sargasso Sea, set mainly on Dominica during the 1820s was her last lengthy work. It is a powerful novel dealing with misunderstandings, anxiety and ultimately estrangement. The book evokes a melancholy and menacing atmosphere and is as complex as it is disturbing.

Anyhow, we had breakfast one morning in a cafe in Roseau that stood on the grounds of Jean Rhys's childhood house. A large tree stood in the middle of the property, a memorial to the great writer. The place was gaudily decorated, but in keeping with the mood of Wide Sargasso Sea, it rained torrentially during breakfast!