Geoffrey Drayton (13 February 1924 – 2017) was a Barbadian novelist, poet and journalist.

Life

Geoffrey Drayton was born in Barbados, and received his early education there. In 1945, he went to Cambridge University,^[2] where he read economics, after which he spent some years teaching in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, returning to England in 1953.^[3] He worked as a freelance journalist in London and Madrid. From 1954 to 1965 he worked for Petroleum Times, becoming its editor. In 1966 he became a petroleum consultant for the Economist Intelligence Unit.^[4]

Drayton was the author of one volume of poetry, Three Meridians (1950), and two novels: Christopher (1959), which was first published in part in Bim magazine,^[3] and Zohara (1961). He also wrote short stories, such as "Mr Dombie the Zombie", which was broadcast on the BBC programme Caribbean Voices.^[3]

Drayton later lived in Spain, where he died in 2017.^[1]

Works

Novels

• Christopher, London: Collins, 1959; Heinemann Caribbean Writers Series, 1972.
• Zohara, London: Secker and Warburg, 1961.

Poetry

• Three Meridians, Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1950.
• "The Phantom", Bim, no. 5 (February 1945), p. 32
• "Strindbergian Sonata", Bim, no. 6, p. 16
• "Nostalgia", Bim, no. 7, p. 52
• "L'Infinito de Leopardi (Translated from the Italian)", Bim, no. 8, p. 6
• "Memories", Bim, no. 9, p. 12
• "On An Etching By Picasso", Bim, no. 9, p. 57
• "The Ancient Carib", Bim, no. 10, p. 116–117
• "Singing Negress", Bim, no. 11, p. 242
• "Old Black Beggar", Bim, no. 11, p. 246
• "To The Poets Of The Caribbean", Bim, no. 11, p. 248
• "Morgan Lewis", Bim, no. 13, p. 67
• "Negro Divers", Bim, no. 13, p. 67
• "Double Game", Bim, no. 13, p. 6
• "Translation from Catallus (Lyrics No-72: On Lesbia's Infidelity)", Bim, no. 14, p. 120
• "Speculations On Uranium", Bim, no. 16, p. 230
• "The Star", Bim, no. 17, p, 7
• "The Cobbler", Bim, no. 18, p, 106

Short stories

• "Swiss Comedy", Bim, no. 5 (February 1945), pp. 11–13, 57–59
• "Dear Mother", Bim, no. 6, pp. 27–28, 91–93
• "No Honour Among Thieves", Bim, no. 7, pp. 32–33, 105–107
• "Narcissus", Bim, no. 9, pp. 10–12
• "Mr. Dombey", Bim, no. 19, pp. 180-182
• "Manrique", Bim, no. 22, pp. 72–73
• "Christopher", Bim, no. 26, pp. 92–118
• "The Redfern Farewell", Bim, no. 27, pp. 159–162
• "Sunset Over San Remo", Bim, no. 31, pp. 173–175
• "Shadow And Shape", Bim, no. 32, pp. 224–227
• "Return To The Island", Bim, no. 40, pp. 252–256
• "The Moon And The Fisherman", Bim, no. 45, pp. 17–20

Non-Fiction

• "Farrago (Extracts from a notebook)", Bim, no.12, pp. 281–287
• "Revisiting Barbados", Bim, no.14, pp. 83–84

Criticism

• A. N. Forde, "Christopher" (review), in Bim, vol. 8, no. 29 (June/December 1951), p. 64.
• John Harrison, "Three Meridians" (review), in Bim, vol. 4, no. 14 (June 1951), pp. 144–5.
• Kenneth Ramchand, "Terrified Consciousness", in Journal of Commonwealth Literature, no. 7 (July 1969), pp. 8–19.
• Derek Walcott, "Zohara" (review), in Trinidad Guardian, 12 November 1961, p. 26.