The burden of producing his memoir has been laid down, close to the riverside, and now Derrick Smith is focusing on getting the message out to the multitude.

With the deadline pressure eased, the former Cabinet minister, senator, and Member of Parliament for then Kingston West Central, and later St Andrew North Western, can also lean back a bit, at times push forward to autograph copies, and bask in the glory that his first book, Turning Points, will satisfy a reading desire among the masses.

The 210-page memoir, put out with the guiding hand of Ian Randle Publishers, became officially ready for sale on December 7 – the day that Smith celebrated 53 years of marriage to the woman he dedicated the book to – wife Karleen.

“I had always wanted to publish a book on my life but I never had the time and I didn’t have the drive,” Smith told the Jamaica Observer in an interview at his upper St Andrew home last week. “I was so distracted with politics and political work, ministry and ministerial work that it just fell in the background. However, here comes retirement, the novel coronavirus, and at my age here comes the instructions…stay at home. The fact that you are asked to stay at home, you had to do something with the time,” the 78-year-old said.

With the help of a ghost writer, and the urging of Karleen, the Fleet Street, Central Kingston-born Smith decided to go at full throttle.

“It was a bit of a stop and start, and there were concerns about the virus and where it was going. It was scary, but eventually we pursed, and here it is, in time for Christmas 2021. It can make an excellent Christmas present for anybody who wants to move away from perfume or after shave. The book has quite a large font, easy to read, bearing in mind that a lot of people in my age group would want to read the larger print,” Smith suggested.

Turning Points, which sells for $4,000 per hard copy, covers happenings that date back to the late 1940s, a few years after his birth in 1943.

Smith has no favourite chapter in the publication, but the list is not short on interest, in particular his dismissal as minister of national security by then Prime Minister Bruce Golding from the Cabinet in May 2008, summed up in the chapter ‘Humiliation’; his knowledge of reputed Tivoli Gardens area leader Lester Lloyd ”Jim Brown” Coke, and his son Christopher ”Dudus” Coke; the failed plan to see son Duane succeed him as Member of Parliament, following a frosty selection process that eventually led to Dr Nigel Clarke being given the seat on a virtual platter; the seven surgeries that he had to undergo, most of them related to diabetes; his three sons and their time in high school; an entire chapter on Karleen; the birth of then fledging third party, the National Democratic Movement (NDM); being in Opposition; his days at Calabar High School; the long-standing affair with thoroughbred racing; devastating Hurricane Charlie; the challenge of keeping up with the Ford twins in election battles; where it all began, among many others.

Of, perhaps, the most controversial topic to deal with in the book, that of the relationship with Golding, Smith said he had no hard feelings, and he had moved on from what he considered that “unfortunate” situation.

“If you are asking me to give an objective assessment of my relationship with my former prime minister and former party leader Bruce Golding, a very, very objective analysis would be that it is quite good. There has never been any open hostility or antagonism from Bruce or myself.

“Politically, while he was with the JLP we had no differences. The first sign of difference occurred when he broke away and went to lead the NDM. There is an issue in the book about how I was dismissed as a minister in 2008. That is history. What I have to say is written in the book. Bruce and myself have never really discussed it, so I have come to my own conclusion. It has never been clarified about how it was executed, but, while we worked together, the relationship was cordial.”

The role he played to ensure that Andrew Holness remained in full control of the JLP in August 2015, following a move by some elected MPs to replace him with Audley Shaw as leader of the Opposition, is also chronicled in detail by the author. In the end, Holness remained in charge and went on to lead the JLP to victory in the February 2016 General Election.

“Eventually, the issue was brought to a head at a major caucus meeting at Belmont Road on August 7, 2015,” Smith wrote. “Twenty out of 21 MPs (Ed Bartlett was off the island at the time) convened to settle the leadership fate of our party. It was a most quarrelsome, hot-tempered meeting that went on for six hours. One MP pleaded with Holness to resign and spare the party the embarrassment of asking the Governor General to oust him.

“Some strong supporters of Shaw that I recall, were Rudyard Spencer, James Robertson, Marisa Dalrymple, and Gregory Mair. I was in full support of Holness, as were Dr Horace Chang, Desmond McKenzie, Babsy Grange, Dr Andrew Wheatley, and Pearnel Charles,” penned Smith.

Describing himself in the interview as one who has had a “wonderful life,” Smith reminisced that he encountered few problems along his journey, until illness set in.

“I can say safely I never at any time in my life could be classified as poor and suffering. I have also never been out of a job at anytime. Ever since I applied for my first job, I’ve never applied for any other, apart from applying and appealing to constituents to become their MP. I was never broke, never rich either, especially after I got married when my wife brought some stability into our lives, and we both by virtue of careful planning have been relatively comfortable,” Smith revealed.

“As for Karleen, the book will tell you when I met her. We went around as girlfriend and boyfriend for six years before we got married. Today is my 53rd wedding anniversary, so this is a lady I have known for almost 60 years. We are like Siamese twins now. The decision to marry Karleen could be the greatest one that I have made in my life,” said the man who has served also as minister of mining and telecommunications, and minister without portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister.

In the absence of an official launch, which is tentatively set for early next year, Smith said, people have started to buy the book. While the Sunday Observer conducted the interview, a few turned up at the residence of the special advisor to Prime Minister Andrew Holness to fork out cash in exchange for the privilege to read.

Even his second son, Jay, plucked $4,000 from his pocket to make a purchase, afterwards asking tongue in cheek, if a receipt wasn’t due after the sale.

“I want you to autograph the book with the following words: “To the best son I have, Jay,” laughed the second born, regarded as Karleen’s “right hand man” in the family business named K&S Caterers, after he threw the money on the table.

The scribbling, maybe not in exact words as quoted by Jay, ended just as first son Derrick ”Dino”, an airline pilot by training, walked onto the patio. Soon after, it was youngest son Duane’s time to report for the unscheduled get-together.

Overall, how does the once powerful figure in the international Jaycees movement feel about the finished product?

“I think it’s a very good book. I am satisfied. Based on my own personality and my modus operandi over the decades, and in the recent past, people don’t know me as well as I think they should. They have no insight into my background and this presentation will detail my illnesses, which, especially with my type of illness, diabetics would want to use it as a guide for how not to treat the disease.

“The book outlines when I was first diagnosed and how I treated a very serious ailment in a nonchalant way which should never have been. So I hope that in this regard the book will also help to highlight the do’s and don’ts when you are first diagnosed with diabetes. I made some major errors in terms of how I initially approached diabetes when it was discovered in me, and I am now paying the price for it,” he revealed.

“So people have been buying the book. Whereas we have not had an official launch, [as] this time of the year individuals are more concerned about structuring Christmas for their respective families, but word has been getting around. and as of now my fingers are paining me signing autographs for people who have been purchasing,” Smith said.