By Tanya Batson, Staff Reporter 
David Brailsford (right) author of 'Duppy Stories' exchanges pleasantires with Mike Henry (left) of MLH Publishing at an early multiple book launch put on by the publishing company, while Miguel Brooks, author of 'Negus', looks on. - Dennis Coke /Staff Photographer
DAVID BRAILSFORD'S Duppy Stories was officially launched on Thursday night at the Garden Terrace of the Courtleigh Hotel in New Kingston.
The book, which is published by LMH Publishing, contains traditional duppy stories as well as those taken from the author's imagination. While the cover states that the book contains stories of "Jamaica's ghosts, gremlins and rolling calves," as Mr. Brailsford pointed out in an earlier interview, there are no gremlins in the book, since gremlins are not Jamaican.
The author started his presentation by stating that the telling of duppy stories "is an oral tradition and frequently a drunken one". Mr. Brailsford revealed that after getting his first taste of duppy stories from his Jamaican-born wife, Leonie, he found that he wanted more. However, his attempts all came up short as there were none. Thus, he decided to create one.
Mr. Brailsford noted that it is the oral nature of the duppy story tradition which seemed to have made it so elusive, along with the fact that many, especially Jamaicans living in England, have chosen to forget them. He noted that many second and third generation Jamaican/English children know nothing about duppy stories or Anansi.
Even so, he seems to have found quite a selection, many of which were collected through rum bribes in bars, to fill his book and fuel his own imagination. To give those gathered a taste of what was within, Mr. Brailsford read one of his original tales Six Feet Under. The story is really a spin on the old classic joke of one person mistaking another for a duppy. This one takes place in a coffin. The tale revealed that Mr. Brailsford is a great storyteller. He used fabulously simplistic wit to make a tale, that almost every Jamaican (or at least the older ones) have heard a version of several times before, and still make it interesting. That trait is indeed the hallmark of a very good storyteller.
Of course, his great storytelling skills stumbled when he came to the conversations, which were written in patois. Before beginning his story, Mr. Brailsford had noted that he would not attempt to read the patois in a Jamaican accent as he thought there was nothing sillier than a British man trying to sound Jamaican, on hearing him butcher the words you simply had to agree. After reading each bit of conversation he stopped to ask the audience if they had understood what he had just said. It took some of them a while, but they got the message.
The author was not the only good storyteller in the house however, as Amina Meeks-Blackwood was the evenings guest speaker. She used the opportunity to give a very witty delivery on Jamaican traditions associated with duppies as well as the social ills which presently plague Jamaica.
Copies of the book were presented to the Jamaica Library Service, The National Library of Jamaica and the library of the University of the West Indies, Mona campus.
