André Pétricien, aka Tony Delsham, died on July 16 at the age of 78. The man who initially wanted to become a soldier like his father finally chose the pen as his weapon.
In 1970, back in Martinique after a stay in France, the young man set himself the goal of denouncing the “alienation of the Creole thought” he saw on his native island.
The writer never left his typewriter and then his computer. Throughout his career, Tony Delsham published more than twenty novels in Martinique (and not in Paris) through the MGG (Martinique, Guadeloupe, Guyane) publishing house he founded in 1972, which became Martinique Éditions in 1999. Note that his first novel, “Le Salopard”, was published in Paris by Presses de la Circex, in 1971, the author was 25.
Tony Delsham tackled very topical subjects in his writing. Many remember “Papa, est-ce que je peux venir mourir à la maison?”, this novel published in 1997 that deals with the scourge of drugs affecting Martinican youth. Guadeloupean director Christian Lara adapted this book for television in 2001.
In 2005, Tony Delsham won the Fètkann-Maryse Condé literary prize in the “Mémoire” category for “Le Fromager”, the 3rd volume of his novel entitled “Filiation”.
The author also wrote an essay (“Cénesthésie et l’urgence d’être”, 2005) and plays. So, after becoming a TV movie, his famous novel “Papa, est-ce que je peux venir mourir à la maison?” became a play and was performed in 1999 in the Caribbean (Martinique, Guadeloupe and Saint Lucia), Europe (France) and North America (Canada).
The writer published comic books, including “Le Retour de Monsieur Coutcha”, with drawings by writer Patrick Chamoiseau (MGG, 1984).
Tony Delsham also devoted himself to journalism by creating Martinique Hebdo (1972) and becoming editor-in-chief of Le Naïf (1975) and Antilla (1990).
