In Ratoon, Lawrence Walrond describes the quest for the history of his family name and for his roots. Unrelenting research takes him from 7th-century Germany through 11th-century France and England and eventually to 17th-century Caribbean countries. He links customs in ancient New Guinea to trade practices of Mediterranean states, and he follows the Walrond name from the battlefields of England across the Atlantic to the sugar plantations of Barbados, where African slaves adopted the names of English landowners. From the history of world events, Lawrence turns to the recent past and pieces together his father's biography using childhood memories, family photographs, interviews, and the man's own diary and records. His father's vocation as a successful elementary school principal in Trinidad is paralleled by Lawrence's own equally effective career as a French teacher in Canadian secondary schools. A unique blend of history, biography, and memoir, Ratoon explores the value of travel, how individuals relate to world events, what kinds of information are worth recording, and how we make sense of the past.