Marcus: The Intrepid Village Boy

Marcus Gullant was born in a remote village in 1920s British Guiana. Growing up, he was restless and ambitious and generally misunderstood by his peers. He felt unsuited to the slow pace of village life and always sought adventure and purpose. As a young man, his attentions were drawn to Teresa, one of the village elite. But her status, and that of her family, was beyond his reach.

How would he be able to contest her love? His solution was to become a soldier in the British Army. The Second World War was merely two years old and he thought that no real man could occupy a better position other than to be in the military during wartime. He enlisted as a merchant seaman and made the perilous journey across the Atlantic Ocean to the ''Mother Country'' where he was conscripted into the Army.

Marcus rose to the challenge of military life as well as to the challenges he faced through discrimination and hostility as a black man in a white society. His hard work and determination saw him grow in confidence and a world of possibilities was opened, including the pursuit of the woman he loved. Matters of the heart are rarely straightforward, and for Marcus there was no exception.