Looting Hummingbirds

In the first quarter of the 20th century, Daniel Thaly of Dominica, then a British Caribbean colony, was one of France’s most celebrated poets. He was educated in Martinique and then at medical school in France before returning to Dominica. His illustrious reputation crumbled when radicals in the emerging anti-colonial Negritude movement criticised his work. From then on he wrote little. Here for the first time in English (and French) we can read a selection of his lyrical and passionate poems - many about Dominica - alongside an introduction that pieces together what little is known of his life.