Book of sketches by Michael Adams MBE drawn over his 45 years in the Seychelles.
Gazing upon this pantheon of island spirits – some sadly already passed, others among us still – we are reminded how history is too often misrepresented as a dry account of events, when real history can only spring from real people. And not just those towering, larger-than-life makers and breakers of nations, but also the butchers, bakers and candle-stick makers who provide the day-to-day stuff of our existence and who fill in, beautifully, the space between giants. This book is such a record. An eloquent, people-driven portrait of island life as could never be captured in a mere net of pretty words. This is a vibrant, pictorial account of just some of the motley crew of a small, brave Noah’s Ark floating on an immense ocean, lost to all the world.
In a way, these caricatures mimic the prophetic, eccentric assortment of Seychelles’ original settlers: ‘15 whites, five Malabar Indians, seven Africans and a negress,’but go further still, rounding it off with a full complement of latter-day, island-style personalities: poets, painters, thinkers, writers, drinkers, lovers, eccentrics, bohemians, madmen, troubadours and scoundrels who, together, have made (and continue, knowingly or otherwise, to do so) the Seychelles kaleidoscope.
Our modern societies, ever-more processed and soul-less,are ones in which delightful eccentrics of one form or another have little place to thrive…or even survive. You must come to a place like Seychelles to find them, where among the nooks and crannies of these magnificent isles – as in the pages of this wonderful book – their places are assured for all time.
(foreword by Glynn Burridge)
Completed: April 2016
Editors: Michael Adams, Heather Adams, Golnar Roshan
Publication design: Design & Practice
Author and copy editor: Glynn Burridge
Director of publications: Mohammed Ageli (Studio Ageli)
Photography: Michele Panzeri