IAN   McDONALD

DATE OF BIRTH: April 18, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH: St. Augustine, Trinidad
EDUCATION:
  • Queen's Royal College
  • Cambridge University (B.A., History, 1955)
  • CAREER:                                 While attending QRC, McDonald was the T&T junior tennis champion for many years and went on to play at Wimbledon and captain the Cambridge University tennis team. Following his graduation from Cambridge University in 1955, McDonald began working in the sugar industry with the Booker Group in British Guiana (Guyana). He migrated to Guyana and worked with the Booker Group for 52 years before retiring in 2007. McDonald is perhaps best known for his 1969 novel, "The Humming-Bird Tree," which was made into a BBC film that was shot in Trinidad in 1992. He also wrote "A Love of Poetry" in 2013. Over the years, he has edited the literary magazine Kyk-Over-Al, a Caribbean literary and cultural publication. In addition to editing many literary works, McDonald published the following works of poetry:
    • Mercy Ward (1988)
    • Essequibo (1992)
    • Jaffo the Calypsonian (1994)
    • Between Silence and Silence (2003)
    • Selected Poems (2008)
    • The Comfort of All Things (2012)
    AWARDS:
    • 1957 - Guyana's Sportsman of the Year
    • 1986 - Golden Arrow of Achievement, Government of Guyana
    • 1997 - Honorary Doctor of Letters, University of the West Indies at St. Augustine (for services to Caribbean sugar, sport, and literature)
    Compiled by Ronald C. Emrit