AS TOLD TO BC PIRES
My name is David Nanton and, 23 years ago, I came to London for two years. If I stay two more years from today, I would have spent half my entire life in the UK.
I lived all my Trinidad life in La Pastora and Cantaro, Santa Cruz, where everybody knew everybody. We used to bathe in the rivers, catch guppies, play cricket and football barefoot on our street, plenty buss-toe, and raid cocoa plantations walking home from school. My standard five teacher, Mr Alvarez, wrote a Santa Cruz poem: “Nestled among hills and valleys lush/ Lies a village peaceful, cool and calm…” It’s all developed now but I still love it. Those cold misty mornings prepared me for London!
The two things I learnt growing up as number three of seven siblings were 1. how to eat fast; and 2. how to dance while waiting to use the toilet! My older brother is a paramedic; all my sisters are teachers and my other brothers and I went into journalism.
I was back home just in March for my brother Joel’s birthday and now he’s gone. It just doesn’t seem real. We spoke regularly, even more so after his cancer diagnosis three years ago. I watched him grow from the family joker into a family man committed to raising three beautiful children with his wife, Hollene. I was his best man. The annoying little brother [became] one I admired and respected. He was successful in everything he did but you almost wouldn’t know it from his unassuming way. The huge hole he left in the lives of my family and so many others, I can’t describe the pain.
Online dating wasn’t for me. During lockdown, I ran into an old work colleague, got to meeting for lunchtime walks. Our old-school courtship wouldn’t have been possible without a pandemic. We are both very private people and I’ve just been told not to say anything else!
In 1984, I became the first La Pastora Government Primary Common Entrance exam pupil to get into St Mary’s College. My first day at CIC was memorable thanks to the white pupil who refused to sit next to me! I still wear my CIC ring.
I was Corporal Nanton, D of Bravo Platoon in the TT Cadet Force. The disciplines of well-polished shoes, sharpl- ironed trouser seams and well-made beds are still part of my life!
Somehow, I managed to graduate with A’Level history, literature and economics. In London, I would finally gain my MBA from Middlesex University.
I actually started working in the pagination department but I wrote a story and gave it to Clevon Raphael and, next day, it was on the front page! My follow-up got published too. A week later I had a desk in the newsroom.
I was only 23 when I left the Guardian to help start The Independent in 1996. I was literally sleeping in the tiny office two nights in a row every week to help design and get the paper out. I came close to burnout but those days were so exciting. It felt more like being part of a movement than just a newspaper startup! We lit a flame that went out way too soon. I’m clearly biased, but man, we were good!
When the Independent was bought out, I crashed. That’
