EDWARD BAUGH

It isn’t easy to answer these questions, especially as to one book. As to one author, if I’m pushed to it, I guess I’d say Derek Walcott. I find his approach to his subjects most congenial, and his imagination and poetic technique most impressive. I don’t think there’s any other writer of whom so many lines have stuck themselves in my head. Re books: no answer comes readily to mind. For all I know, without remembering, it was the very first book I ever held when I was a child, the first book from which I learned to read—the excitement of the idea of a book, of holding in my hand a magical world in which I could get lost. I show words that I love them by handling them with care and respect and affection and awe.• Eddie Baugh is a Jamaican poet, professor emeritus of the University of the West Indies, Mona, and the author of Frank Collymore: A Biography. He delivered the feature address at the opening ceremony of the Bim LitFest 2014.