David Dabydeen heads the Centre for Caribbean Studies at the University of Warwick. He was born in Guyana, but has lived in the United Kingdom from his early youth. He is the author of the novels The Intended, Disappearance, The Counting House, A Harlot's Progress, and two earlier books of poetry, Slave Song, which won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, and Coolie Odyssey. He is recognized among the United Kingdom's finest writers. He is also the author of The Counting House, A Harlot's Progress, and Hogarth's Blacks: Images of Blacks in 18th Century English Art.