100,000 people in the streets, jumping up to the infectious rhythms of steelbands, in the costumes of Romans, clouds, Donald Ducks, stormtroopers, Zulus, devils, anything a fertile imagination can devise and skilled hands create - that's Carnival in Trinidad.

But beneath the fantastic spectacle there lies a history of cultural struggle. The influences of Europe, of India, and above all Africa are reflected in customs and ceremonies still alive in Trinidad today. They reveal the fascinating background to this, the Greatest Show on Earth-two days of Bacchanal when even the poorest can be a King.

'People wait a year for this day': pp 48-50