The Dean Barrow Story By Lawrence Vernon

He served an unprecedented three consecutive terms as Prime Minister of Belize. The Right Honourable Dean Barrow has been immortalized through the Dean Barrow Story, a biography of the nation’s fourth prime minister, written by Lawrence Vernon. This is Vernon’s fifth biography. He describes this one as a labour of love. It was not commissioned by the former prime minister, but according to Vernon, Barrow gave it his blessing and even contributed through interviews with Vernon. The thirty-two-chapter book was officially launched today. News Five’s Paul Lopez reports.

 

Paul Lopez, Reporting

The Dean Barrow Story recounts the life and political contributions of the nation’s fourth prime minister. The biography was written by author Lawrence Vernon.

 

Lawrence Vernon, Author

“The actual book took me about two years to research and write. I wanted to get everything that was written about Dean Barrow from the newspapers, in the archives and from press releases and articles and from my interview with him.”

 

 

 

 

The thirty-two-chapter biography opens with excerpts from Barrow’s final Independence Day speech in 2020 at the foot of the National Assembly Building. At the time, Barrow had delivered more than two decades of Independence Day speeches, both as leader of the opposition and Belize’s prime minister. The book’s final chapter, titled “A Man of Character,” looks at how Barrow navigated Belize’s economic challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

 

 

Lawrence Vernon

“Apart from a successful law career, Dean Barrow’s venture into politics, covered thirty-seven years, almost thirteen of which was him serving as prime minister of Belize. Let me offer two quotes found in the book. The first one, like his grandfather, Dean got into electoral politics by way of the Belize City Council elections. This was in December of 1983 as one of the U.D.P. candidates when his party was successful. When Dean Barrow made a decision to become a member of the U.D.P., he was well qualified political in terms of being aware of public policy, being visible in the community, good public speaking, up to date on current events and had a thick skin.”

 

 

The biography also takes a closer look at Barrow’s upbringing, the fact that his father, Arthur Barrow, was a pharmacist, and his mother, Joyce Barrow, was a housewife. Born on March second, 1950, he was the first in a family of three children. The book explores Barrow’s connection with politics through Ebenezer Barrow who was the leader of the pro-colonialist Nationalist Party established one year after his birth. Lawrence Vernon describes this body of literary work as a labour of love. His son, Dylan Vernon, says his father writes for the love of informing a nation.

 

 

 

Dylan Vernon, Son of Author

“What motivates him to write? I am sure that he writes primarily as he would say himself, for the same reason that he became a librarian, to share accessible information and knowledge and to contribute to the body of written material on his beloved Belize for current and future generation. That is why he does it. It is sad to say that this kind of writing does not really pay. It is not really valued in our current society. But Lawrence Vernon has done for the love of informing people and to motivate others to research, read, and write.”

 

 

 

The Dean Barrow Story was not commissioned by Barrow, though Vernon explained that they sat down for interviews over the two years he spent writing. Barrow was also unable to be present at today’s event. The two hundred and eight-three-page biography was printed by The Angelus Press Limited.

 

 

 

 

 

Jermain Sanchez, The Angelus Press LTD.

“I want to tell you that we have printed many books before and this is one of the few books that we did probably one percent edit. So, congratulations to you Mr. Vernon. Your word choice, your selection was perfect, because when we use to go to school ninety-nine percent was good. Nobody topped that, so you got a ninety-nine percent. I wont tell the people what the one percent was about. We will talk about that after.”

 

 

 

Lawrence Vernon

“Although as I said, he didn’t commission it, I volunteer to do it, but he was happy to have his achievements, especially as prime minister revealed. In the newspapers you have little snippets here and there, but you put it in one book now and people can have access to it and read it in one place. My only thing is that it was suppose to be published by Amazon, that was in the time of COVID. When I returned to them, they raised the price for printing so I said why not do it in country. So we have a local printer doing the book and I think they did a good job of with it.”

 

 

Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez.