Former Member of Parliament Paul Buchanan will launch his second book ‘Jones Town Trench Town :the Journey back, on Tuesday evening at the Mona Visitors’ Lodge, University of the West Indies, starting at 6:30 pm.

The book, as described by the author, “recounts the greatness that both South St Andrew communities and their immediate environs experienced in the mid-20th century. It tells of their impact on the national landscape in sports, culture, academia and politics.

“As the author, I speak as an eyewitness to their transcendent accomplishments in the various spheres of our development. Unfortunately, the missteps made in the decades since our Independence, have led to the degradation evident in both communities, as indeed others throughout the country,” Buchanan said.

“Importantly, the book offers some solutions to engender the inspiration needed for national redemption. It also recollects my years at Wolmer’s Boys’ School, as well as the exceptional achievements of the traditional high schools on the fields of sports,” he went on.

The 435-page publication, sections of which are carried elsewhere in today’s Sunday Observer, is the second publication by Buchanan, who first put out Community Development in the ‘Ranking’ Economy: A Socio-economic Study of the Jamaican Ghetto in 1986.

People’s National Party member Buchanan, a land economist and property developer by profession, defeated Andrew Gallimore in the St Andrew West Rural seat in the December 2011 General Election to gain a seat in the House of Representatives, but was beaten by Olympian Juliet Cuthbert in the same constituency during the February 2016 General Election.

Buchanan attended Jones Town Primary School, Wolmer’s Boys’ School, and York University in Canada where he gained a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and International Relations, and the University of the West Indies where he earned the Master of Science in Government, with his thesis on the lnformal economy.

He is also a Wolmer’s, All Schools, and Jamaica Youth team cricket captain, and represented the Jamaica national cricket team as a 16-year-old with the likes of Jackie Hendriks, Easton McMorris, Lester King, Maurice Foster, Teddy Griffith, and Arthur Barrett, in the line-up.

Buchanan also represented Wolmer’s in hockey, table tennis and football, and was a member of the Antoine Tassy-coached Jamaica Under-14 football squad that included arguably the best Jamaica player of all time, Allan “Skill” Cole, Leonard “Chicken” Mason, among others, during the 1960s.

He lectured in land economics at the University of Technology from 1992 to 1998 and was the national coordinator of the Government’s land distribution programme, Operation Pride.

Keynote speaker at the launch will be new president of the People’s National Party and Opposition Leader-designate Dr Peter Phillips, and there will also be presentations from Minister of Culture, Gender Affairs, Entertainment and Sport, Hon Olivia “Babsy” Grange, curator of the Institute of Jamaica, historian Herbie Miller, and Member of Parliament for South St Andrew Dr Omar Davies.

(See excerpts of Buchanan’s book on pages 26, 27)