A memoir set against the political backdrop of modern BVI history, At Stoutt’s Side: My life with H. Lavity Stoutt is a two-decade snapshot of modern BVI history as told in the autobiography by Kenneth A. Williams.

The brief account of the roller coaster career of the first and most influential Chief Minister in the history of the British Virgin Islands is both informative and entertaining and will probably be required reading someday in BVI schools.

The story starts with Williams; a small boy living in Jessup’s, Nevis looses his father to the sea. Two historic events, the break away of Anguilla and the wreck of the St. Kitts/Nevis ferry Christena, which followed within three years of his father’s death, the author also cites as being significant moments in his past.

Williams’ family is fragmented and shortly after the Christena disaster, he is sent to live in Tortola with friends of the family, but to him were complete strangers. It was there that Williams met H. Lavity Stoutt.

Getting a taste of politics in student body elections while in school, Williams made the transition to national politics and became first, Stoutt’s protégé, then later becoming the Chief Minister’s principal political advisor and founding the BVI Department of Information and Public Relations.

A personal touch is given to the drama that unfolds during Stoutt’s intermittent tenure of administration and the elections in between – where on a small group of sparsely populated islands, every vote counts.

H. Lavity Stoutt was the first and longest serving Chief Minister of the British Virgin Islands, winning four general elections and serving three non-consecutive terms of office from 1967 to 1971, again from 1981 to 1983 and again from 1986 until his death in 1995. Since his passing, a public holiday has been declared annually in his memory on his birthday, 7 March.

The book credits Stoutt as being a true advocate of the people and helped raise the standard of living in the small British territory, advocating and then achieving an institution of higher learning - the Lavity Stoutt Community College in Tortola.