Why I've Spent 40 Years Guiding on Montserrat

People always ask me how I got the name. It’s simple. When I was a boy I had a habit of describing everything I saw. The plants, the birds, the smell of the rain coming down through the Centre Hills. When I started singing calypso, I took the stage name Describer, because that is what I did, I described the world around me. Over the years people shortened it to Scriber, and it stuck. So did the habit.

For most of my working life I walked these hills for the Forestry Division. That is where I learned it all, the trails, the birds, the frogs, the bush, every corner of this island’s green heart. In 2010 I opened Scriber’s Adventure Tours so I could share it with visitors. I have been guiding for more than forty years now.

In December 2024, His Majesty The King awarded me an MBE (Member of the British Empire) for services to the Natural World and to Tourism on Montserrat. I will be honest with you, it caught me by surprise. I was only ever doing the work I love.

The island that made me

I grew up walking these trails long before the volcano woke in 1995, before two-thirds of the island became an Exclusion Zone, before our capital, Plymouth, disappeared under the ash. I knew the forests that vanished. I know the ones that grew back. The island lost a great deal. But it also taught me something most people never get to learn, how a place can grieve, and rebuild, and still be beautiful.

Our national bird

These days I am best known for the Montserrat Oriole. It lives nowhere else on earth, and it nearly disappeared along with everything else. On a good morning I can call to them, and they answer me back. When a visitor hears that for the first time, you should see the face on them.

Why I’m still doing it

People ask if I will ever slow down. Never. Every group I take out gives me something back. A child seeing the Oriole for the first time. A scientist who travelled across the world to study our birds. A cruise visitor who came expecting a beach and left wanting to come back for a whole week.

My job is to take a stranger by the hand and walk them through my island. Sometimes that is all I do. Sometimes it changes the way they see the world. Either way, it is worth it.

I encourage you to join me on one of our tours. You won’t be disappointed.