My name is Paul. I live on the Caribbean island of Dominica where I write about culture, place, and the offbeat side of life. I also take photographs, sketch in ink and watercolour, and spend hours in my mountainside garden. I’m an insatiable traveller and am always planning my next trip. These days, I share most of these things on Instagram at @paulcrask.

Since coming here in 2005, I’ve written for regional and international publications, authored four editions of two Bradt travel guides, and created several independent magazines, including Dominica Traveller, Dominica Geographic, and Gade Mwen.

In 2024, after nearly two decades of travel journalism, I decided it was time to move on. I’m an old school Bourdainesque traveller, and modern social-media driven tourism has no appeal to me. I still write as a freelance journalist – quite often for Caribbean Beat magazine – but these days I’m more drawn to culture and the offbeat and understated side of island life.

I’m an enthusiastic gardener and backyard naturalist, and I grow and roast my own coffee. I’ve written several articles for the UK’s Hortus journal, and more recently, taken up sketching island-inspired, imagined urban scenes in ink and watercolour. I’ve sold a few and even had some commissions.

A bit of background

I was born in 1965 and grew up in the north of England. I studied German Language and Literature at the University of Leeds, where I also wrote film and theatre reviews for the Leeds Student newspaper. As part of my degree, I studied behind the Iron Curtain at the former Karl Marx University in Leipzig, East Germany, where I was followed everywhere by the secret police (Stasi).

I taught English in Germany and Japan, then worked as a project manager in London. It was in England that I met Celia, my wife, who was born in Dominica. In 2005, we made the decision to downshift and settle on the island.

I’m rather introverted and find social events difficult and small talk impossible. My happy places are the garden, the forest, and walking the streets of my favourite cities — enjoying art galleries, museums, markets, green spaces, and architecture. I’ve travelled extensively and can get by in several languages.

Although Dominica has become my home (I have dual citizenship) and I’ve explored and written about so much of it, I’m still an Englishman at heart. Reminding myself that I’m a visitor here helps to keep me grounded and maintain perspective.