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PORTOBELLO: The trilogy book
series
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(NOW Kindle Available!) |
| The time-line is the end of 1990
through January 1992. The place is the British West
Indies (Turks & Caicos Islands), a colony of the UK
administered by an elected native parliament but always
answerable to a British Governor appointed by 'The
Queen.' TCI has existed largely by being ignored; anyone
selected to represent Queen Elizabeth II as TCI's
Governor, Attorney General, or Under Secretary has from
the first such appointment in 1973 been an 'end of
career move' for those chosen. On a list of colonial
appointments virtually no other British territory ranked
lower in prestige or importance; not even the Falkland
Islands or St. Helena. Of the approximately 100 islands
and cays the capital Grand Turk has been the center of
all commercial and social activity although there has
not been much of either for the last century. Then in 1983 a French owned development called Club
Med Turkoise opened on a 7 mile essentially
undeveloped white sand beach along the north shore
of Providenciales (called Portobello in our
trilogy). |
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In support of the
facility, which immediately employed more than 200
people who by-in-large had never had the opportunity to
hold jobs previously, the British spent several million
dollars creating a modern - if austere - 727-DC8 class
paved runway and support processing terminal. From
perhaps 1,000 tourism visitors in 1983 prior to Club
Med's opening the entire island exploded; 25,000 annual
Club Med visitors, and by 1985 even larger numbers of
free-lance guests. |
The economy on Providenciales (Provo in native slang) took off like a
skyrocket; thousands of pristine white sandy parcels appeared on the
market as the island's population base shot from under 600 in 1979 to
more than 8,000 in 1990 (30,000+ 2009). Provo/Portobello became one of
those all-too-rare get-away destinations where virtually anything short
of murder was ignored. Romp on the beach totally nude? That was the rule
- not an option at adults-only Club Med. Get drunk and stay that way for
a week hanging out under a palm tree? No problem, 'mon. Dabble in drugs
and nobody cared? That was Provo.
By 1985 tens of millions of US dollars
poured into TCI's offshore banks practicing the golden rule of hiding
funds from tax collectors; "Do not ask - do not tell." Then tens
of millions exploded into hundreds of millions, shot over the
billion-dollar mark and TCI had arrived; the place you crept away to
hide - yourself, your partner for a week, your money. It was the
'American wild-west' reinvented a century after Kansas and Oklahoma
became 'civilized.' The only 'golden rule' on Provo was "Don't kill
someone," although doing something harmful to yourself was a
personal choice. |
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PORTOBELLO: One (August 2009), Two (September 2009)
and Three (October 2009) are fiction; a made-up story. However, the
author lived there (just down the beach from Club Med) for 11 years and
the 'characters' found in the trilogy are virtually all based upon real
people. And the general thread of continuity running through all three
books is far more historically accurate than fantasy."You spin an incredible yarn, Mr C" writes one of the folks
exposed to #1. "Remind me to never accept a lobster lunch invite from
Lady Lane!" writes another (see pages 307-309, PB#1). There is
unlikely to ever be another "Portobello/Provo" in this
rapidly changing world. |
It was one hell of a party for the two-plus decades that
it lasted, and then 'the lawyers' and tax snoops arrived and by 2008 it was
not only all over but the country was experiencing the hang-over to end
all drunks. From 'Hell-hole of the western Caribbean' (an official US
designation in 1978) to a private island and luxury pad for movie star
Bruce Willis (2005), the natives of TCI raced through five generations
of measured growth telescoped into one. Imagine: no TV, no radio (simply
because there was no electricity!), no roads, no stores, no commerce to
exchange currency - exploding to 200 channels of TV, name-brand chain
stores, Twitter and YouTube plus the highest concentration of luxury
Cadillac cars on the face of the planet; even more than Dubai! When the
TCI legislature went into cardiac-arrest, late in 2008, government
officials resigned under intense pressure as the British suspended the
Constitution, courts and elections leaving the colony floating in a sea
of total uncertainty. Portobello: One through Three, paints the story
based upon fiction but in truth no fiction was required. All one had to
do was pay attention to the events as they transpired around you while
living in "the hell hole of the Caribbean." |
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Author Robert Cooper's personal Blog
In 1980, only a year living on Provo/Portobello, the author and his
family, hauling 3/4 inch video recorders and Ikegami semi-professional
TV cameras, were invited to attend the "First-Annual Miss Turks & Caicos
Beauty Pageant." It was held on South Caicos, at the Admiral's Arms Inn.
Part way - perhaps half way - through the evening's program a two engine
small plane - a tail dragger - buzzed the Inn and promptly the MC (whom
I will not identify here) announced "The Pageant will suspend for one
hour." Immediately around 25 native honcho guys raced for beat-up pickup
trucks to drag race to the airport. The plane was a drug runner from
Colombia and the "buzzing" was to alert locals it was landing on the
abundant South Caicos paved runway for refueling. The 25 or so guys that
raced away each hoped to be rewarded with perhaps US$50 or more in
exchange for manhandling 42 gallon containers of fuel previously left
sitting adjacent to the runway to replenish the fuel guzzler's petrol.
That was typical of life in 'the islands' in the late 70s and early 80s;
when in fact the drug runner had been refueled and the macho-honcho
local guys returned - the Beauty Pageant restarted - fueled now by
freely available US fifty dollar bills which in an hour totally wiped
out the modest supply of alcoholic beverages held at the Admiral's Arms.
My point is this; while Portobello is fiction and fantasy, in actual
fact I needed neither to create this trilogy. Any decent journalist with
a notebook, living there during the 80s, could have done the same thing.
(Bob Cooper; Author) |
Where to from here?
This trilogy has been created with the
physical assistance of Booksurge - a division of
Amazon.com. All three sequential books appear
for sale at Amazon.com (books, then title
ORDER HERE)
priced between $24.99 and $27.99; each is a few
pages less than (or more than) 600 pages (at Booksurge there is a price differential at the
600 page point). Kindle? Of course. By
mid-November (2009) Portobello: One will be
available to Kindle fans ($9.99 each I suspect)
and by mid-December Portobello: Two and Three
will also be 'Kindle-ized.' It will be
interesting to see how the
'experimental-read-to-me-function' handles the
many TCI word versions unique to the British
West Indies! |
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On Provo - in TCI???
Instant delivery of all three books at Unicorn
Bookstore, Graceway Plaza, Leeward Highway,
Providenciales (tel
941-5458; fax 941-5510; email unicorn@tciway.tc).
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