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While on the island they explored the rain forest, met new friends, tasted exotic fruits and dishes, and enjoyed wading into the island's many rivers. However, they also act out their sense of civic duty by donating books at the near century old Roseau Public Library which nourished their parents, and medicines to the local general hospital. 

Delightfully illustrated by Maryland graphic artist Michael Williams, with photos from Major Francis Richards among others, we are introduced to life on a fascinating and little-known Caribbean Island. Our Visit to the Island is an excellent read and a good introduction for anyone interested in the Caribbean and its people.

Seldom written of, and revealed here, is the fact that 7,000 British West Indians served in the RAF during World War II, and the purchase of dozens of aircraft for the RAF by West Indians who raised such funds under harsh economic conditions. This history is given a deeply personal touch as it is told through the words of two Dominican veterans who served in the British Army’s South Caribbean Forces: Wendell Christian and Twistleton Bertrand. We read also of Dominicans such as Harold Bryant, Osmunde St. Clair Alleyne, and L.A. McKoy who won high honors, to include the DFC, for their courage shown over the skies of battle torn Europe. This fascinating book should find a place on the shelf of every student of world history. It also contains 50 rare photographs of British West Indians at war.

Christian's autobiography, in many respects, does not cover virgin territory. Several prominent Dominican women, most notably authors, Jean Rhys, Phyllis Shand Allfrey and Elma Napier, have written autobiographical sketches of their lives in Dominica in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Other writers, such as Jamaica Kincaid's Autobiography of My Mother and Marie-Elena John's Unburnable, have also written fictional stories which explore the extraordinary hold of the landscape on the sensibility of their heroines.

But whereas these works all depict the Dominican landscape as possessing a malignity or hostility which prefigures some crisis experienced by the subject or heroine, the very converse is true in Christian's autobiography. Growing up in modest circumstances in St. Joseph, a young Alberta Christian appeared to be totally in sync with her environment despite the daily hardships which threaten to circumscribe her future. Indeed, Alberta's extraordinary resistance and mettle was nursed by the very factors that conspired to abort any prospects or ambitions of many of her compatriots.

But Alberta's parents imbued their children with strong religious beliefs which gave them a quiet confidence and dedication to overcome all obstacles. When her father lost his job on a plantation, he was consumed by shame. However, rather than retreat into a dungeon of self-pity, he chose instead to farm a portion of land in the heights of his village, although there were more arable portions of available land closer to his home.

But in the anatomy of her parents' tribulations, the scalpel of corrective action was being operated on Alberta. When Alberta's father lost his job, her mother entered the work force, picking tobacco and limes on a local estate. When she fell, and broke her collarbone, Alberta's mother relied on her deeply rooted faith, reassuring her brood that "God is good" and that everything would be alright.

And so, lacking the protection of a social safety net, the John Baptiste family tarried, eking out a living with measures such as selling eats at church services and cricket matches and making charcoal. The Christian children themselves added heft to these survival efforts and in the process, forged their own success on the anvil of honest labour.

Steeped in a tradition of sacrifice, frugality and religion, Alberta Christian would grow up, marry into a well-known musical family in Dominica and imbue her own children with the qualities and belief system which molded her as she progressed from childhood to adulthood.

In her husband, Wendell, Alberta found a soul mate whose own tremendous sense of civic duty matched her own. Wendell Christian, whose life is chronicled by son, Gabriel, a prominent barrister in Maryland, U.S.A., in his 2009 book, For King & Country, enlisted in the British military during World War II and afterwards was a senior officer in the Dominica Fire Services for decades before his retirement.

This is a riveting story of endurance, faith and good works, amidst a sea of adversity, is a timely reminder to all readers of the importance of duty, the importance of strong family discipline, and unselfish service to community.