Ti-Jean and his Brothers was Derek Walcott's first venture into musical plays and is still his most popular work. A lilting St Lucian folk-tale, it tells the story of a poor family who dwell on the edge of a magical forest haunted by the devil's spirits. The brilliance of Walcott's writing draws us into the realms of fantasy where the actual and the miraculous collide.

Dennis Scott's An Echo in the Bone is set during a traditional Nine-Night Ceremony held to honour the spirit of the dead. Shattering sequential time in a series of dreamlike episodes the play takes us back to the time of plantations and slavery - and the savage murder of the white estate owner. Who killed Mr. Charles? The answers lie deep in the racial memory, they 'echo in the bone'.

The giddy atmosphere of carnival is the setting for Errol Hill's Man Better Man, a rumbustious, colourful comedy musical about stickfighters. With dance and song the battling troubadours and the calypsonian weave a tale of braver, superstition and fraudulence. When first performed the Times described it as 'a blazing electrifying feast of rhythm and colour'.

Inspire students to enjoy poetry while helping them to prepare effectively for the CSEC® examination; ensure coverage of all prescribed poems for the revised CSEC® English A and English B syllabuses with an anthology that has been compiled with the approval of the Caribbean Examinations Council by Editors who have served as CSEC® English panel members.

- Stimulate an interest in and enjoyment of poetry with a wide range of themes and subjects, a balance of well-known poems from the past and more recent works, as well as poems from the Caribbean and the rest of the world.
- Support understanding with notes on each poem and questions to provoke discussion, and a useful checklist to help with poetry analysis.
- Consolidate learning with practical guidance on how to tackle examination questions including examples of model answers for reference.

There have been many great and enduring works of literature by Caribbean authors over the last century. The Caribbean Contemporary Classics collection celebrates these deep and vibrant stories, overflowing with life and acute observations about society.

This luminous book recounted through the eyes of the 12-year-old Francis, describes the year he spends, far away from home, in San Fernando. As his initial confusion gives way to increasing confidence and maturity, the open consciousness of the boy allows different times, events and places to co-exist.

Over the course of one year, through Francis' eyes, we see the cycle of natural change and progression; the daily round of the market, showing the fruits of different seasons, the passage of dry season to rainy and back again to dry, the cane fires as the crop comes to an end, all symbolising the progression of the boy's year. And weaving in and amongst these mundane but intense experiences Francis feels his way to some understanding of adulthood.