Author Description

This amazing story chronicles 40 years of personal struggle by Grenada developer, Leon Taylor, to create a luxury resort on a Caribbean island. His obsession with the vision of creating something outstanding on the island of his birth started when his father asked for his assistance to develop a barren estate with several beaches on the island of Grenada. After completing his post-graduate studies in Canada, Leon returned to the island in 1965 to plan the development of the estate.But even before construction could begin, the next 20 years presented him with a daunting series of political and military events that made headlines around the world.Leon's first major obstacle came in 1967, when Grenada began the slide towards political dictatorship, under a Prime Minister more interested in political power than in the island's development. The oppressive government frustrated and marginalized Leon's plans, forcing him to rely on his own personal finances to keep his company solvent until the political climate improved.But matters only worsened. In 1979, the Prime Minister was overthrown by a coup of leftist Marxist revolutionaries under the influence of Cuba and the Soviet Union. Cold-War geopolitics ushered in new and discouraging challenges to Leon's plans for the resort. Grenada's strategic location heightened its value to the Soviet Union's expansionist policies, leading to the rapid militarization of the island. The revolutionaries then dealt another severe blow to Leon's plans: they confiscated his estate to build an airport that would have linked Cuba to its war in Angola.Yet again, turmoil intervened. Within less than 5 years, the revolutionary government imploded in a bloody confrontation that led to executions, a shoot-to-kill curfew, and the largest American military operation since the end of the Vietnam War. With democracy firmly restored, Leon's plans once again shifted into high gear to develop the remaining portions of the estate surrounding the airport.