VALUED Norton Radstock Photographic Society (NRPS) member Gill Pitman hosted the latest members’ evening with an intriguing talk entitled “The Glories of Trinidad and Tobago”, inspired by ancestral links through her mother to these Caribbean islands off the coast of Venezuela, writes Jenny Short.

After some brief locational and historical context, we were whisked away on a breathtaking visual journey, laced with childhood memories, fading photographs and family anecdotes that only an interest in family trees can uncover. Gill’s great-grandfather went to Tobago as a missionary in 1902 and founded a legacy of relatives — some of whom migrated to Canada, the USA and Bristol, while others remained on the islands to influence their development and to preach in the churches of these colourful communities.

Close as they are to South America, and with the associated drug-related crime rates, the islands can be dangerous places to live or visit. Yet, with their unique histories and natural beauty, they remain destinations that Gill has visited many times and to which she remains deeply connected.

She skilfully led us on a tour filled with stories of aunts, uncles, cousins and their children — a journey that had us marvelling at the architecture, from ornately colonial mansions decorated and ventilated with intricate iron fretwork, to ramshackle wooden shanties where the only metalwork is rusting corrugated iron.

We shared in the recipes of her aunt, a veritable legend in the kitchen, and danced along to the music and colour of the annual carnival. We celebrated with her uncle, and mourned with him the demise of a church founded by a relative so many years ago.

It was a truly magical evening, one in which we could almost taste the rum and savour the crab stew. It was certainly something very different — and one we will find hard to follow.