Love for an Island

The Collected Poems of Phyllis Shand Allfrey

There is renewed interest in Phyllis Shand Allfrey, author (the Orchid House) and politician from Dominica. Allfrey died in 1986 - her poetry neglected and little known. Her work is now being acclaimed and her place in Caribbean literary cannon assured. Allfrey’s biographer, Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert, writes in her illuminating introduction that with the renewed academic interest in Allfrey’s work and the publication of this collection, Allfrey’s time has come.
The volume includes all the poems published in her lifetime, some unpublished poems and a sample of her satirical poems written when she was editor and publisher of The Star newspaper in Dominica. This is the first time her poetry has been put together in one volume, spanning five decades, from the 1930s, and reflects the two strands of Allfrey's life - the tropical and the temperate.