Ministry of Community, Culture and Information.

Bermuda Recollections, which, as the name suggests, conjures up an older, simpler Bermuda which has now all but disappeared, is, first and foremost, a really good read. Here is a book that is highly entertaining, fluently recounted and brimming with humour.It will appeal to anyone of any age who is remotely interested in the Island.

It is also, of course, a course in social history, but so beguilingly served up, that the learning process is a genuinely painless one.

Bermuda Recollections is the brainchild of Ruth Thomas, Officer for Cultural Affairs, who arranged for the Extension Department of the Bermuda College to arrange workshops for the Island's senior citizens. Out of that, the idea of a book was born. Initial reaction would suggest that this volume may be the first of many.

Some participants preferred to entrust their early memories to the tape recorder, while others enthusiastically turned author: the resultant mix of verbatim conversation and often beautifully written passages about Bermuda's past is something of a triumph for all concerned.

Elizabeth Jones, at the Bermuda College, who oversaw the project, has maintained the spontaneity and colloquialisms -- or as she herself expresses it -- "preserved the integrity of their memories'' by resisting the temptation to make too many "corrections''.

The stars of this gem of a volume are, of course, its authors. Ruth Thomas and Elizabeth Jones have ensured that people from all backgrounds are included, which is part of the book's fascination. The only thing all the contributors share in common, apart from a fierce (if sometimes nostalgic) love of their Island, is that they are over 50.

The thought which occurs throughout the reading of this book is that the participants have lived through changes more rapid and profound than at any other time in the Island's history. A man on the moon, aeroplanes, cars, television, refrigerators, telephones, even radio and, in some cases, electricity were but future phenomenons when they were children. Bermuda was still rural, with plenty of open spaces and before the invasion of motor vehicles, a place where the journey from St. George's to Hamilton was still a major excursion. There can be no doubt that the church (and its discipline) played a major role in a community where the family unit was still firmly intact. Houses were thoroughly cleaned on Saturdays in preparation for the Sabbath. Almost every home, however humble, seemed to have a garden full of chickens, rabbits and often cows and goats. As Mrs. Josephine Simmons notes, "Oh, everybody had enough to eat. At that time, everybody shared.'' This might be a bag of potatoes, a couple of rabbits or freshly laid eggs. There is a feeling that, although life was undoubtedly hard and sometimes downright frugal, there was a sense of community where neighbour cared about neighbour.

A total of 30 Bermudians each present the story of their own early lives, or they reminisce about the customs and social mores that permeated the daily round of their childhoods.

In Mrs. Anne Foggo's case, her verbal picture of old St. David's recalls a way of life which had probably not changed all that much for over a hundred years.

As one of nine children, her day began early, gathering seaweed on the beach before helping on the family farm ("all of the rest of them got education but I didn't get none of it'') and cleaning other neighbours' houses or helping her mother wash clothes for the British army and then press them with coal irons. At day's end she would sleep on flour bags filled with grass. When she was only 12 years old, Mrs. Foggo found herself helping to bring her baby brother into the world ("and I've been doing it ever since'').

There are contributions from The Hon. Sir John Plowman, who attended the Garrison school at Prospect, who remembers the excitement of Armistice Day at the end of World War I and his Garrison house lit by candles and oil lamps which would light the way to the outside privy.

There is a fascinating section by Billy Adderley, who used to play the piano for the silent movies and the Harem Scarem revues at the old Opera House. He also achieved immortality of a sort when he told Terence Rattigan (who lived here) that he thought his new play, `Separate Tables,' was "terrible''.

Mr. Eddy DeMello tells of the trauma of arriving as a child in Bermuda from the Azores and trying to cope with learning a new language, while Mrs. Trew Robinson paints a vivid sketch of her home in St. George's where her father had a home-made ice-cream shop. Mrs. Frances Zuill remembers seeing Halley's Comet on its first visit and again in 1985, and her mother's involvement with the suffragette movement.

And Mr. Vernon Jackson has written, with his customary ease, a chapter on the Bermuda Police Service of which he was, for many years, a member of the CID.

Later on, he writes, his Blue Jay restaurant became a Hamilton landmark, not least for the quality of staff there, many of whom worked there to pay for further education abroad.

Others talk of weddings, funerals, whaling, yellow fever, fire-fighting, home remedies, Christmas, cricket and hurricanes as they occurred in the olden days. If space permitted, one could go on and on expounding on these literary anecdotes, for every contributor has a tale to tell. There are photographs from the collections of Mrs. Vivienne Gardner and Mr. Jackson and the National Archives, all of which add to the period flavour of the book.

Bermuda Recollections is the sort of book which can be read over and over again. It will never "date'' and will be enjoyed perhaps even more by the next generation than by this one. Every home should have one.

PATRICIA CALNAN HISTORIC CHRONICLES -- Mr. Vernon Jackson, one of 30 contributors to "Bermuda Recollections'', published by the Ministry of Community, Culture and Information.

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