Colonial Sketches and Stories

This collection of short anecdotal sketches and stories attempts to depict impressionistically the rural colonial life in an era in British Guiana long gone. The narrative voice is that of young Ralph. The stories, though largely fictionalized, are loosely based on true incidents. In trying to evoke the color, spectacle, and mores of the period, Ralph looks at the fun and games of childhood in a sugar plantation.






Paris Singh was born in Rose Hall Estate, Canje, British Guiana, in 1943. After Primary education at St. Patrick's in Rose Hall, he moved with his family to Hampshire and attended Corentyne High where he graduated in 1962. He spent another eleven years there to teach English, Latin and French before leaving for studies in Canada. He read Honors English at McMaster University and graduated in 1977. He continued with graduate studies in Renaissance Literature there and later at the Universities of Waterloo and Ottawa.

After his studies, Paris emigrated to New York where he taught English at La Guardia College and English and Latin at Bryant High, Astoria. After forty-two years in the profession, he retired in 2009.