Jamaica

PGH spent the summer of 1953 in Jamaica, renting a villa overlooking San San Beach and Monkey Island. The villa is still there today, the view as stunning now as it must have been then. After the villa was isolated by a storm she moved to the Titchfield Hotel in Port Antonio, managed by Errol Flynn’s father Theo, a former university professor from Tasmania. Flynn’s wife Marelle was away that summer, so he and PGH drove (in his chauffeur-driven car) along the coast, exploring beaches, swimming in the famous Blue Lagoon and sailing on Errol Flynn’s yacht, the Zaca, to Navy Island. But the main objective of the summer was to compose, and PGH completed two major works, the Sinfonia da Pacifica and her opera The Transposed Heads. On completion, the score of Transposed Heads was dedicated to Theo Flynn.

Featured image: Blue Hole/Blue Lagoon, Jamaica. National Library of Jamaica Digital Collection.