While recuperating from life-changing surgery six years ago, Lennie Little-White was encouraged to write something every day as part of his therapy. He followed that advice, and those jottings can be found in Pathways, his first book.

“The famed psychiatrist Dr Freddie Hickling made me promise him to write something every day as calisthenics for my brain. That started in 2019, and since then l have written over 2,000 pieces,” Little-White told the Jamaica Observer. “To get feedback, I used WhatsApp to send samples to family and friends.”

Based on response from his WhatsApp group, he compiled those musings and photographs into what became Pathways.

The 82-page project also contains photographs the film-maker took during his recovery at home in St Ann.

Former prime minister, P J Patterson, wrote the foreword.

Little-White bypassed the conventional distribution for the book, which is available in physical form through Amazon and online from Kindle.

Born in St James, Little-White attended Jamaica College and studied film at Ryerson Polytechnic University (now Toronto Metropolitan University) in Canada and Northwestern University in Chicago.

He wrote, produced, and directed Children Of Babylon, a 1978 movie starring Bob Andy and Leonie Forbes. He had similar roles for Royal Palm Estate, the popular, long-running soap opera on CVM Television which was produced by Mediamix, his company.

Little-White considers that drama his crowning glory.

“The ongoing challenge, for me, was to develop storylines, write the scripts, then direct more than 400 actors to create Jamaica’s first must-see television. For 25 years Royal Palm Estate ruled the roost with over 700 episodes on Sunday night TV,” he said. “This feat has never been achieved by any other production with its genesis in the Caribbean.”

In 2019 Little-White underwent brain surgery to correct partial facial muscular paralysis, a sensitive procedure that compromised his speech.

Convalescence allowed him to express his creativity in a different form.

According to Little-White, “Pathways is an amalgam of words and images that tell a story about the road l have travelled.”

— Howard Campbell