These are no more than sparks snatched from the fire of their lives – encounters with two of the men who were most memorable in my life.

* I was in my early twenties, recently from university and starting work with Bookers in British Guiana, when as part of my induction into the sugar industry I went to meet Dr George Giglioli at the offices of the Sugar Producers Association in Camp Street. He rose white-haired and slightly stooped…..