Chris Stokes

When it was Nelson Christian - more widely known as simply Chris - Stokes' turn to speak at Saturday evening's launch of the audio book Cool Runnings and Beyond: The Story of the Jamaica Bobsleigh Team, he plucked a book from a shelf at Bookophilia.

Holding up a copy of Philip Sherlock's The Story of the Jamaican People to those gathered at the Hope Road, St Andrew bookstore, he said it was the first time the story of the Jamaican people had been written by a Jamaican. Then, holding up a copy of the Cool Runnings and Beyond audio book, Stokes said it is the first story of the Jamaican bobsleigh team told by a Jamaican.

"It is not beyond us as Jamaicans to not only create history but to record our own history," Stokes said. The story itself is not new, as the paperback was published in 2002. However, transferring the story to audio format was another matter entirely. The irrepressible Blossom O'Meally-Nelson, Stokes' mother, had the audience's members laughing when she said "the first thing we discovered is that Chris really does not speak English. We had pronunciation classes and all of us were in the pronunciation classes".

Pronunciation, intonation

She continued, "It was not only pronunciation, it was also intonation. You-do-not-want-to-read-a-300-page-book," she said, pausing slightly between words for emphasis.

Stokes eventually told all that "everybody in here swears that they speak English. Go and record your voice and listen to it," he challenged them, saying that we really don't speak English. There was more laughter when Stokes spoke about going around speaking like he needed to for the recording and getting on everybody's nerves.

At first listen to the audio book, the practice and lessons seem to have paid off in a well enough done delivery. Getting the language and tone right was part of a tedious process and Stokes spoke about being "in the journey".

"The most valuable thing I got from the journey was not the CD, but the honour of developing a friendship with Dan" (McDowell, who did the blessing at the launch), he said. As for the journey of the bobsleigh team itself, he said it prepared the team members for life as well as taught them to prepare their children for life.

It was a tough journey, the first chapter, 'Fire' beginning after a clip of Marley's Coming In From The Cold. Chapter four tells the story of the pain and failure of the spectacular crash at Calgary in 1988.

"The team did what the cynics expected, crashed at the big show," Stokes read. Then there was the Lillehammer Games in 1994, when after a good run, Chris Stokes said it was the first time he had seen brother and bobsleigh team-mate Dudley 'Tal' Stokes "happy at the end of a race in six years of bobsledding". The Jamaican performance at Lillehammer was "one of the biggest upsets in the history of bobsledding".

More laughter at Bookophilia

There was more laughter at Bookophilia when Tal Stokes, in giving the vote of thanks, thanked Chris for teaching him a lot about himself in the book, noting that the Jamaica bobsleigh team's story is very much alive and continues. And he referred to a 2002 International Olympic Council ad, coming from the same organisation which had resisted Jamaica's participation in Calgary in 1988. It said "they came out of nowhere. They were the underdogs". And, although Jamaica did not win, the ad continued "but the world sure loved them for trying. Here's to the Jamaica bobsleigh team".