Trust the Darkness: My Life as a Writer

"How could I change an outcome that was set in concrete?... This meant plunging into the darkness..." Jamaican writer Anthony C. Winkler has been called "the unrivalled master of comic writing in the West Indies." Many readers regard his novel The Lunatic as among the funniest books in any language. Trust the Darkness tells the story of Winkler's development as a writer, and much more. The "enigmatic Winkler," as one reviewer called him, reveals a troubled childhood. Expelled from school in Montego Bay at the age of fifteen, he spent the next few years getting increasingly frustrated: Winkler knew that he wanted to finish school, and to be a writer, but the future looked dark. Then his mother sent him to the USA; and in that country, after years of deprivation, he gradually found the means to fulfil his ambitions. Over the years Winkler has learnt to trust the darkness. Often, stumped in his effort to find a creative resolution in his writings, he has learnt to begin writing without