FOR Edward Ricardo Braithwaite, Guyanese author of the book, ‘To Sir with Love’, being bestowed with the Cacique Crown of Honour (CCH) by President Donald Ramotar was a big occasion for him; something he’d never dreamt about. “I just went to visit the President, and suddenly, he gave a signal to somebody who came out and pinned this thing on me. I don’t know what I have done to deserve it,” Braithwaite said.
Speaking with the Government Information Agency (GINA)’s Director, Neaz Subhan and his friend of many years, Francis Quamina Farrier, during an interview Friday, Braithwaite, who turned 100 in June,  said that while he has seen presentations of these signal awards made to people who have deserved them, he never thought for one minute it could happen to him.
“I stood there in a daze; I never imagined myself in that situation. I knew I was visiting with the President and …it was a surprise; a pleasant surprise, but a surprise.”
The commendation was for the author’s outstanding contribution in the field of literature and effective service as a diplomat.
As President Ramotar observed, it was an honour for him to bestow the award on “a man who has made us proud, and has made Guyana’s name famous by his writing.”
Braithwaite’s book was made into a popular film in 1967, starring Sidney Poitier. It is based on the author’s experience as a schoolteacher in the East End of London some years after he’d achieved a Bachelor’s Degree and a doctorate in Physics at the University of Cambridge.
With regards to the success of his book, Braithwaite noted that he did not expect the novel to take off as it did, since he’d initially written it for himself.
“I was so frustrated, that I was afraid that what I had to say would haunt me, but I had to say it… So, if it seems wrong and unpleasant, I had to get it out; and once it was out there, it became public property,” he said.
Braithwaite, a former student of Queen’s College, and the City College of New York, is now a member of the Order of Service of Guyana.
He is also patron of the Inter-Guiana Cultural Festival now being staged here in Georgetown.