Twenty years ago, my wife-to-be (herself born and brought up in Trinidad & Tobago) invited me to join her on a trip to experience her beloved homeland. Little did I suspect that during this first visit I was being auditioned as suitable husband material. However, I passed her test with at least a high Merit because, like my hero Gabriel, I immediately relished the islands’ colours and contrasts, interacted with the inhabitants and developed a lasting obsession with photographing its extraordinary bird life. I am now irrevocably invested in the ecological wellbeing of Tobago and the welfare of its people – with some of whom I have forged lifelong friendships, and in whose company, like Gabriel, I feel completely at home. To my wife Julie Baker (née ffrench), then – for all the above, for her textual edits, for tolerating an ofttimes mutinous author/husband, and for cajoling me out of my own Eurocentric comfort zone – I am profoundly grateful.

I must also credit Julie for the dazzling dawn photo (taken from Erasmus Cove over Bloody Bay, Tobago) which has been used for the book cover.

With regard to Obeah traditions and Tobago folklore, I am indebted to Giselle Alleyne, Maisha Oben, Nicole Richards, Nikeisha Alfonso, Africka Alexander, Trevor McBarrow, Cheri-Ann Pascall, Wendy Mohammed, Shurland James, Randall Dubery and, most of all, Regina Dumas and Desmond Wright at the Cuffie River ecolodge. Vivid first-hand reports of supernatural goings-on were my initial inspiration to begin writing, and these have – most of them – been included in this story. I am also grateful to Yvonne Ramsey-Asankuthus for plot inspiration derived from the blue of her eyes, and to Tele Cruz for allowing me to use both the name of his bar and that of the Fog Angels J’ouvert and Mas Band for the Carnival scenes.

I am particularly grateful to Matt and Jayne Mitchell, he for being the original adopted Ghanaian and his wife for countenancing the thought of her husband’s story being fictionalised in the first place. Huge thanks too to Carol Kent and Trisha Baker for their work in checking the novel’s religious content, and to Emma Lee-Potter, Andrew Eames, David Pick and Rachel Lee Young who read drafts at various stages and made endlessly supportive and constructive comments. Special thanks though must go to Joanne Husain and Faraaz Abdool for their dedicated labour in narrative continuity and the wrangling of my dialogue into colloquial Trini.

For their feats of elegant typesetting, layout, cover design, advice and generally being whinged at, immense gratitude to Kim and Sinclair at Indie Authors World.

And finally, to Chris Read, fearless manipulator of computer programmes, servers, websites and incompetent amateur users thereof (such as yours truly), many thanks indeed, guvnor, for getting this website over the line and into the realms of usefulness and user satisfaction.