Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
History
In Bermuda's bookstores, you can find several topics devoted to the colorful history
of the island. Making for the best reads are the following titles:
The Rich Papers—Let-
ters from Bermuda
by Vernon A. Ives (Bermuda National Trust and the University of
Toronto Press);
Biography of a Colonial Town
by Jean de Chantal Kennedy (Bermuda
Bookstores Publisher);
A Life on Old St. David's
by Ernest A. McCallan (Bermuda
Historical Society);
Chained on the Rock: Slavery in Bermuda
by Cyril O. Packwood
(Baxters); and
Bermuda's Story
by Terry Tucker (Bermuda Bookstores Publisher).
Flora & Fauna
If you're a devotee of Mother Nature, seek out
Bermuda Houses and Gardens
by Ann
B. Brown and Jean Outerbridge (Garden Club of Bermuda);
Bermuda: Her Plants and
Gardens 1609-1850
by Jill Collett (Macmillan Caribbean); and
A Guide to the Reef,
Shore, and Game Fish of Bermuda
(self-published) by Louis S. Mowbray.
Fiction
One of the most sensitive portraits, capturing Bermuda of long ago, is
The Back Yard
by Ann Z. Williams (Macmillan), an account of growing up in Bermuda in the 1930s
and '40s.
Film
Film buffs may be surprised to discover that Bermuda has an indirect link to the
movie
The Wizard of Oz
—Denslow's Island.
The privately owned island is named after W. W. Denslow, who created the original
illustrations for the topic on which the movie is based,
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
(1900) by L. Frank Baum, and thus with his pen gave form to many of the characters
depicted on the screen. Denslow lived in Bermuda at the turn of the 20th century.
The island, however, despite its famous association, is off limits to visitors.
Several films were shot in and around Bermuda. The most famous is
The Deep
(1977), starring Jacqueline Bisset, Nick Nolte, Robert Shaw, and Louis Gossett, Jr.,
a visually arresting movie about a lost treasure and drugs and, of course, scuba diving
off the island's coast. For one of the scenes, a lighthouse near the Grotto Bay Beach
Hotel and Tennis Club was blown up.
A movie that was filmed partly in Bermuda is
Chapter Two
(1979), with James
Caan and Marsha Mason. Based on the successful Broadway play by Neil Simon, it
is the story of a playwright's bumpy romance soon after the death of his wife. The
Bermuda scenes were shot at Marley Beach Cottages.
Music
Modern Bermudian music, which you hear today mainly in hotel lounges, is a blend
of traditional Bermudian music with sounds from Jamaica, Trinidad, and Puerto Rico,
as well as the United States and Britain. However, these aren't the sounds you'll
predominantly hear: As elsewhere, American and British rock, modified by local
rhythms, has proved the strongest and most lasting influence.
Visitors are often pleased to discover that the island's best-known singers and musi-
cians can be heard at many of the hotels and nightclubs. Inquire about which local
artist is performing during the cocktail hour at your hotel; chances are it may be one
of the most popular.
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