‘Byline’ of a trailblazer

As a memoir, Byline documents the life and career of the late, trailblazing, Newsday editor-in-chief who carved a unique path in a profession that had always been defined by men.

On one level, Byline is a history of Trinidad and Tobago journalism and Mills’ special place in that history considering she served as editor- in-chief at two out of three, major daily newspapers in her long, illustrious career.

Equally important, Byline offers a glimpse of Mills’ writing style, offering proof of her ability to identify, shape and package a story in her own indelible style.

Whether she is speaking about idyllic days of growing up in Diego Martin, her family’s move to Belmont, the treasures of discovering a newspaper library or her coverage of Prime Minister Eric Williams’ death, Mills has an uncanny way of creating meaningful experiences for every reader out of her own reflections.

Mills’ daughter Suzanne, who has followed in her mother’s journalistic footprints, adds yet another level to this book by presenting a personal essay about her mother that adds a touching, insightful look at the end of Mills’ life.

Highlighting Mills’ energy and enthusiasm for journalism, Suzanne captures how her mother always mustered the strength and energy for the cause of family and journalism.

The essays and interview Suzanne has gathered from stalwarts of journalism capture the indomitable spirit and reflect the respect and enthusiasm that Mills inspired in her journalists.

Journalist John Babb covers the ground before Mills became a journalist, tracing her early career at the Trinidad Guardian to her last job at Newsday, Horace Monsegue’s interview and Dr Hamid Ghany add their insights into Mills as a journalist, but it is Andre Bagoo’s essay, “A Sleeping Dragon”, which captures the excitement of journalism and gives the most insight into Mills as a fierce competitor and champion of free speech.

Included in Bagoo’s essay is Mills’ commentary, dated Friday, February 10, 2012, about a police raid on Newsday offices.

Here, readers experience Mills, well into her 80s, defending her journalists and freedom of speech with the energy of a young woman, not at all like the octogenarians we imagine.

Each chapter of Mills’ memoirs offers some surprising new revelation that stems from a memory.

The importance of family clearly emerges in Mills’ memoirs, and it becomes an unspoken lesson about the importance of valuing family for all who tend to bury their lives with work.

There is likely to be unexpected revelations.

In Providence, Mills rebelled against the uniform; she wanted to be a lawyer, and she had no clear idea which profession she would enter when she graduated from secondary school.

Her early days at the Gazette, where she started off as a librarian, reveal the type of news carried in the ‘40s, and Mills’ reactions to that news, which varied from humour (discovering a letter from her uncle published in the newspaper) to shock (at discovering how domestic violence was treated).

Byline is the story of an iconoclast who understood the power of language and dared to dream beyond what most of us can imagine. As Babb writes, “Despite every effort to make us fail, Newsday grew from zilch to become the People’s Paper in less than a decade. It was beyond everyone’s wildest dreams.

But perhaps not beyond Therese’s.” You can find Byline in leading bookstores throughout TT and on Amazon.com.