In the Trees

by Pauline Fisk

  In addition I’d like to thank Rob Murray-John, who arranged for me to meet volunteers out in the jungle; Greg Coe, to whom fell the unenviable task of getting me out to them and back again; and Jen Mullier, who made the best triple-chocolate cake of my life and, more importantly, loaned me her mosquito net. I’d also like to thank the two remarkable groups of young Trekforce volunteers that I met out there, and their leaders, Sully and Katie, who welcomed me so openly into their midst and made me feel so proud of them.

  Thank you also to Rafael Manzanero, the Executive Director of Belize’s Friends for Conservation & Development, whom I met out in the wonderful Chiquibul Forest Reserve and has kindly written an afterword for this book; to Pablo and his family down in Toledo District, who offered me hospitality, friendship and an example of dignity and open-heartedness which will remain with me for ever; to Laura Longsworth who talked to me about the Belizean people being full of hope, and her sister, Zee Edgell, who brought the two of us together; to Luciana Essenziale and Michael Joseph, who offered me friendship and hospitality on Caye Caulker; and to Peter Aldag, formerly of Caye Caulker, who sent me photographs of Paul Nabor at his beach resort, Driftwood, where I spent a memorable last night of my trip.

  In particular, however, I’d like to thank Idris, who graciously accompanied his mother around Belize for six weeks without a word of complaint. The original gap year adventure that inspired me all those years ago was his, and so is the song whose words are reproduced on p. 156. Twelve kilometres out in the jungle he wrote these words and put them to music. We really were out ‘in the trees’, not another soul around, the ground beneath our hammocks covered with fresh jaguar prints. Idris called his song ‘Paradise’. No other name would have done.

  About the Author

  Pauline Fisk is the much-loved author of eight children’s novels, including Flying for Frankie, The Mrs Marridge Project, Sabrina Fludde and Midnight Blue which won the Smarties Prize and was shortlisted for the Whitbread Children’s Book of the Year Award. Pauline has five children and lives in Shropshire.

  Copyright

  First published in 2010

  by Faber and Faber Ltd

  Bloomsbury House

  74–77 Great Russell Street

  London WC1B 3DA

  This ebook edition first published in 2011

  All rights reserved

  © Pauline Fisk, 2010

  ‘Paradise’ pp. 156–7 © Idris Davies, 2010

  The right of Pauline Fisk to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

  This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly

  ISBN 978–0–571–27605–9