A few years back, I bought a copy of The Darling Fishes by Rick Ferreira, published by William Kimber in 1977. When the book arrived, it turned out to be much more interesting than I'd expected, and that was before I had even read it. The book had belonged to Rick Ferreira himself and had been sent by him to Peter Haining in 1980. It had a letter from the former to the latter folded up inside it, along with photocopies (made by Ferreira) of some reviews, and Ferreira had also pasted a single review of the collection inside the front of the book itself, along with his agent's details. Oh, and the book was signed.
Curious, I had a quick look online for information about Rick Ferreira, and I found next to nothing; he was the author of Are You Stone-Cold, Santa-Claus?, a collection of stories and poems, the title tale of which was made into a TV/radio play, and that was all I found. I intended to look again, but I got carried away with other research... The years passed... And last week I finally got around to it.
According to the jacket of the book, Ferreira was 44 years old in 1977 and had been a Londoner for half of his life. He had grown up on the island of Tobago, the son of Portugese parents. According to the jacket of A Chill to the Sunlight, an anthology he edited in 1978 (also published by Kimber), Ferreira intended to return to Tobago once he wrote a bestseller. He dedicated that book to 'Daphne'.
So, here's what I had to work with: Rick Ferreira grew up on Tobago and came to the UK around 1955. He was of Portugese descent. He was 44 years old in 1977, so he must have been born around 1933 (The Supernatural Index has his year of birth down as 1928). His letter to Haining gave me his address in 1980 (he was living in Hampstead, NW3). And he may have been married to a lady called Daphne.
Off I went in search of Rick Ferreira. And I found out that in June 1961 he won second prize in the short fiction section of the Hampstead Festival literature competition. Some of his short fiction was read on the radio; 'Guest for the Weekend' was read on Radio 4 in July 1975, and 'Out in the Midday Sun' was read on the same station in August 1979. He also wrote poetry; a poem of his (unnamed in the TV papers) was read by the actor Rudolph Walker on London Weekend Television in May 1978. As I mentioned above, his short story 'Are you Stone-Cold, Santa-Claus?' was made into an ITV play; that aired on 24 December 1977 and starred Cheryl Branker.
But I could find nothing more... There was no record of a Rick Ferreira having lived here in England. So, I tried the records for Trinidad and Tobago... Nothing. No birth record, no death record... Nothing.
That would be because Rick Ferreira never existed, not here in England and not on Tobago. No wonder I couldn't find him! Albert Stanislous Ferreira, on the other hand, certainly did exist, but he didn't come from Tobago, and he wasn't born in 1933.
Albert Stanislous Ferreira was born in Georgetown, Guyana (300 miles or so from Trinidad and Tobago) on 3 July 1922. He was of Portuguese descent. He wrote in 'Rocking Is So Right', one of the 'Personal Pieces' from Are You Stone-Cold, Santa-Claus?, that his grandmother came from Madeira in Portugal. His paternal grandmother did indeed come from Madeira, and she emigrated to Guyana, which is where Albert's father, Manoel Aloysius Ferreira, was born.
According to Who's who in British Guiana 1945-1948, Albert was educated at St. Mary's Roman Catholic School in Georgetown before going on to work as a pawnbroker's clerk. By the end of the 1940s, he had already begun writing plays and had had three short stories published in the Chronicle Christmas Annual. At some point before leaving Guyana, Albert married Daphne Helena De Abreu.
Albert left Guyana and travelled from Georgetown to Plymouth in 1953, arriving on 21 October. In another of his personal pieces, 'Did You Say—Dad?', he claimed that he came to England on a six-month trip and didn't intend to stay; however, according to the incoming passenger lists, he arrived intending to remain in England permanently. Albert also claimed that he left his wife and son behind and that Daphne later divorced him (that she sued him for desertion). It's certainly true that Daphne didn't travel with him to England in 1953. She did eventually come to the UK, but she and Alfred lived apart. Despite that fact, he did dedicate A Chill to the Sunlight to her in 1978.
Are You Stone-Cold, Santa-Claus?, which is a small paperback volume, was published by Fitzwilliam in 1973.
The Darling Fishes followed in 1977, and these two collections appear to be the only two he had published. He was still hoping for a bestseller in 1978. In his letter to Peter Haining, written on 13 January 1980, he wrote, 'I would like nothing better than to have one of my stories selected for inclusion in any forthcoming Anthology of yours'. Whilst his stories did make it into anthologies edited by Mary Danby, R. Chetwynd-Hayes and Peter C. Smith, to the best of my knowledge none appeared in a Haining anthology.
In 'The Lucky Londoner', another from Are You Stone-Cold, Santa-Claus?, Albert confessed to feeling guilty that, when he arrived in England, as a man with white skin he was accepted as a first class citizen, while fellow countrymen who were black were considered second class citizens. He also confessed to feeling ashamed of his 'tiny, sun-drenched and poverty-stricken home'. Of course, Tobago wasn't his home, but the mainland Caribbean region was. And, in writing at least, he doesn't appear to have hidden his West Indian roots; quite the opposite in fact.
For some reason, Albert stopped writing—or he simply couldn't get anyone to publish his work—and I have found no mention of him after 1985, when his short story 'The Girl from Tomango' was included in the 1985 edition of Mary Danby's anthology 65 Great Spine Chillers, published by Octopus.
Albert Stanislous Ferreira died in London in May 1995 at the age of 73. He never did get that bestseller.
Update, 1 August 2023:
I didn't quite give up looking for information about Albert after I finished writing the above post, and today I found out a little bit more about him. Rick Ferreira wasn't his only pseudonym; he also wrote as Stan Xavier. In 1978, his novel Cold Calypso was published by United Writers Publications. It is the story of one winter's day in the 1950s, when eighteen-year-old Ricky Stone (from Hamilton, Bermuda, British West Indies) awaits his first snowfall.
Interestingly—though not really that surprising—Stan Xavier had a different back story to Rick Ferreira. According to the publisher's note inside the book, Stan was from Bermuda, and he arrived in England in the winter of 1958/9 (five years after his actual arrival here). The photograph on the right was the one in his passport when he made that long journey. Apparently, he wrote Cold Calypso in 1959, then put it away for years until, in the late 70s, he sent it to United Writers Publications (insisting that he would not update it). According to the publisher, the novel is 'slightly naughty, wistfully nostalgic—and great fun'. The back flap of the book claims that Stan was married and a grandfather when the book was published (though, of course, by this time Albert was divorced). So, at this point, after finding all that out, I can't help wondering if Albert went by any other name... I am holding out hope.
