Dear Editor,
It is with deep sadness that I read of the passing of my lifelong friend and former colleague Louis Marriott. Many fitting tributes have been offered, mostly highlighting his talents as a playwright. He was a man of firm principles and high standards and refused to join the banal matter which, sadly, often passes for entertainment in modern Jamaica.
But this talent ought not to obscure his skills as a journalist. He was a stickler for accuracy, detail and grammar and, like his contemporaries the late John Maxwell and Ken Jones, he could produce high-quality pieces on a variety of topics, whether general news, politics, entertainment, sports, whatever, at the snap of an editor’s fingers.
He was blessed with one of the most extraordinary memories of anyone I know — even from when he was a boy in short pants — about subjects and events well beyond the grasp of ordinary children.
He could be brutal with the truth too. He was at his most acerbic with his review of L D “Strebor” Roberts’s book on the exciting tied Test series Down Under in 1960-61. “Cricket’s brightest summer”, wrote Marriott, “was cricket’s dullest book.” I can still hear the resounding “ouch” reverberating across more than half a century.
Jamaica will not soon see the likes again of this extraordinary multi-talented son of the soil.
Walk good, my friend.
Errol W A Townsend
Ontario, Canada
ewat@rogers.com
It is with deep sadness that I read of the passing of my lifelong friend and former colleague Louis Marriott. Many fitting tributes have been offered, mostly highlighting his talents as a playwright. He was a man of firm principles and high standards and refused to join the banal matter which, sadly, often passes for entertainment in modern Jamaica.
But this talent ought not to obscure his skills as a journalist. He was a stickler for accuracy, detail and grammar and, like his contemporaries the late John Maxwell and Ken Jones, he could produce high-quality pieces on a variety of topics, whether general news, politics, entertainment, sports, whatever, at the snap of an editor’s fingers.
He was blessed with one of the most extraordinary memories of anyone I know — even from when he was a boy in short pants — about subjects and events well beyond the grasp of ordinary children.
He could be brutal with the truth too. He was at his most acerbic with his review of L D “Strebor” Roberts’s book on the exciting tied Test series Down Under in 1960-61. “Cricket’s brightest summer”, wrote Marriott, “was cricket’s dullest book.” I can still hear the resounding “ouch” reverberating across more than half a century.
Jamaica will not soon see the likes again of this extraordinary multi-talented son of the soil.
Walk good, my friend.
Errol W A Townsend
Ontario, Canada
ewat@rogers.com