Cultural centre to house the Colin Rickards book collection
Late journalist's Caribbean books come to Bathurst Street
By Stephen Weir
 |
| Colin (l), Stephen Weir (m) and Craigg Slowly (r) |
Toronto bookstore owner Itah Sadu is busy organizing hundreds of books that
have just been donated to her Different Booklist Cultural Centre on Bathurst
Street in preparation for the unveiling later this month of the Colin Rickards
Collection.
Rickards, a tireless reporter and
columnist for the Caribbean Camera, suffered a fatal heart attack at his East
York home eight years ago, just month before his 74th birthday.
“Colin was voracious reader and a book
collector of all things Caribbean,” Sadu told the Caribbean Camera.
“ The oldest book in this collection
dates back to 1896. He had a real interest in all aspects of the Caribbean from
the Indo presence to the Chinese presence to the Afro presence. This is probably the most complete library of
the Diaspora culture in the city.”
Apart from collecting books about the Caribbean,
Rickards also loved stories of the American West and wrote about historical figures such as
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid and an account of English settlers in the West
called Bowler Hats and Stetsons. He was also an expert on the French Foreign
Legion – a subject he wrote about
extensively.
Rickards was born in England in 1937 and
was a writer and reporter for a number of British media outlets. He travelled
extensively in the Caribbean and Central America as a foreign correspondent for
several British newspapers and the BBC before settling in Canada in 1970. He
edited Toronto’s Caribbean Business News and wrote for many community
newspapers.
Rickards authored nine non-fiction
books, including The Man from Devil’s Island.
“ Colin not only collected books but he
knew the authors as well,” Sadu noted.
“
He was on a first name basis with Guyanese novelist Edgar Mittelholzer, and
people like Jamaican poet Andrew Salkey, playwright Jan Carew and Barbadian
writer George Lamming, Many of the books in the collection are signed by their
authors.”
The Different Booklist Cultural Centre
is attached to the Different Booklist bookstore. It is a warm comfortable space with community
photographs and art hanging on the walls.
There are musical instruments on tables and now a wall of Rickards’
books.
“ The books have been donated by his
widow, Ida and their son, Damian in his memory,” explained Sadu.
“These books will not be loaned
out. We encourage people to come inside,
take a seat and use this incredible resource for research and study.”
When the Collection is formally opened
on May 31, another donation – a Grand Piano – owned by the late Charles Roach
will be unveiled. The Trinidadian
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