| Rogues in Paradise

Ian R. Clayton — Author, Cultural Storyteller & Creator of RoguesCulture.
Exploring identity, culture, and belonging in a changing world

Ian R. Clayton is a Trinidad-born author and cultural observer whose work is formed by decades of living and working across the Caribbean, the UK, Ireland, and Canada, as well as extensive travel throughout Europe and Asia. He holds Canadian, British, and Trinidadian citizenship and maintains long-standing ties to Barbados, where he has lived and worked extensively. His professional and creative work sits at the intersection of tourism, cultural storytelling, identity, and social inquiry.

Cultural Work & Platforms

Founder of the Barbados Tourism Encyclopedia (barbados.org) and creator of RoguesCulture, Clayton examines how identity, race, memory, and belonging are shaped by history — and how ordinary people navigate dignity, humour, resilience, and hope within systems of inequality and inherited perception. His digital heritage and cultural storytelling work has been recognised by major media, including The New York Times and Google, and he has led tourism, education, and cultural innovation projects across the Caribbean, Canada, and internationally.

Book Focus

His debut creative nonfiction book, Rogues in Paradise, examines Barbadian culture and identity through lived experience and narrative portraiture, amplifying voices often overlooked in traditional historical accounts — street vendors, mystics, rebels, local philosophers, and quiet everyday heroes. The work situates personal stories within wider conversations about colonial legacy, race relations, resistance, memory, and the evolving character, exploring how culture and identity take shape within racially diverse, historically complex societies marked by colonial inheritance, mixed emotions, and the ongoing negotiation of belonging.

Mission & Ethic

Clayton’s writing is guided by a moral ethic: the belief that deeper awareness can foster understanding, that accountability and compassion can coexist, and that storytelling can help people recognise dignity in themselves and in others. Through this work, he seeks to contribute — in a small but meaningful way — to conversations about justice, responsibility, and shared humanity in a world that remains deeply divided, yet still capable of change. In the age of AI, these concerns are paramount.

Multimedia Storytelling & Public Dialogue

Through his podcasts and multimedia series — including RoguesCulture Manifesto and Black Swans & RoguesCulture — Clayton expands how culture, identity, and social structures are being impacted by technological change, economic disruption, and shifting global realities. His work invites reflection rather than reaction, encouraging audiences to engage complexity with clarity and empathy.

The rapid acceleration of Artificial Intelligence is about to disrupt lifestyles, culture, and identity, and Clayton’s work examines both its potential benefits and its serious threats. See more about this in the manifesto Deep Dive Purpose and Matter.

The Book: Rogues in Paradise

The book explores the human journey from slavery to self-determination in Barbados — the blueprint of the colonial plantation system — showing how character, education, culture, and identity shaped resistance and freedom. This work became the foundation of RoguesCulture.
Focus on thoughtful audiences interested in history, identity, culture, and social change. Avoid spam posting.

Rogues in Paradise uncovers the hidden history of Barbados—from the brutal realities of slavery and colonialism to the irreverent wit and resilience of everyday people. Through vivid portraits of mystics, vendors, rebels, and leaders, Clayton paints a nuanced picture of Caribbean culture, inviting readers to rethink what it means to be free. More about the Author: roguesinparadise.com/about

A true story of Barbados: its characters, rogues and heroes, places and past. Told with subtle humour, it’s an insightful, in-depth narrative of a remarkable people.

Ian R. Clayton BIO- sample chapters rogues-book-phone

Download free pre-screening chapters:
Sample.RoguesInParadise.com

The Rogue’s View (Fun Ian R Clayton Sketch)

Ian R. Clayton: Cultural Provocateur in Flip-Flops
Part rebel, part historian, and all heart, Ian R. Clayton digs beneath the postcard-perfect surface of paradise to uncover the rogues, rebels, mystics, and misfits who created it. From Barbados to blogs, podcasts to paperbacks, he’s telling the stories empire forgot—with wit, warmth, and just the right touch of mischief. Author of Rogues in Paradise and creator of the RoguesCulture podcast, Ian connects people, place, and history in ways that challenge, entertain, transform, and uncover truths that are inconvenient, unresolved, and essential.

Hosting: RoguesCulture Podcasts

RoguesCulture was originally created to support Rogues in Paradise by expanding its ideas into podcasts, blogs, and multimedia storytelling. Over time, it developed its own life and audience.

Today, RoguesCulture functions as an independent cultural platform that explores:

Identity and belonging
History and cultural memory
Artificial intelligence and social change
Power, dignity, and humanity in an age of acceleration

While RoguesCulture continues to connect back to the book, it now serves a broader mission: to build a public conversation about culture, identity, and what it means to remain human amid rapid technological and social disruption. It is guided by a cultural translator’s perspective — connecting big forces like artificial intelligence, globalisation, and historical memory to everyday human experience. Through storytelling and reflection, the project explores identity, dignity, belonging, and what it means to remain human in an age of disruption. The Podcasts examines how rebels and rogues shape identity, disrupt norms, and influence the course of culture and history.

Rogues Rebel Music

From music and politics to postcolonial resistance and social movements, the podcast uncovers how voices from the margins—often silenced, overlooked, or misunderstood—have always driven cultural transformation.

Featured themes include:

How rogue figures shaped music, identity, and rebellion
Rogue genres: Music Rebels include African Drums, Reggae, Jazz, Punk, and Classical
Rebel Soul: folk, spiritual, gospel, funk, country and western
The legacy of Afro-Caribbean rhythms and resistance
The cultural impact of Black cowboys, hillbilly traditions, and redneck identity

Sample Rebel Music Podcasts & Trailers

Music Rebel Series: Episode 1. African Drumming & Origins of Rebel Music
Explores the deep roots of African rhythm and its influence on jazz, punk, classical music, and beyond. Drumming as a forbidden language of resistance.
.
Episode 2: The Rebel Soul
Dives into soul, funk, folk, spiritual, gospel, country & western, Black cowboys, hillbilly and redneck music—tracing the rebel thread through unexpected genres and cultural identities.
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Sample: Identity & Culture In the Age of AI:

- AI Conversations:
  RoguesCulture Podcast — Conversations on Humanity and Identity In The AGE OF AI.
  Exploring identity, culture, history, and artificial intelligence through storytelling and reflection to help people understand the coming social change and disruption of artificial intelligence.Artificial intelligence is reshaping work, culture, and identity — while inherited social systems continue to influence how we see one another. In this RoguesCulture Deep Dive, two voices explore how colonial history, cultural memory, and technological acceleration intersect in the modern world.

See Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@IanRClayton/podcasts

Share Your Insight and Stories

|– A moment that changed how you see identity
– A family story that shaped your sense of belonging
– A cultural misunderstanding that taught you something
– A question you’re still wrestling with

https://stories.roguesculture.com

Ian R Claton EXTENDED BIO

Tourism Development

CEO AXSES Tourism Development & Publishing. Publisher of TravelWatchNews, TavellersInsights, Adventure Travel Destinations, and Marketing Hotels Magazines along with several marketing and technology blogs

Artificial Intelligence Development in Personalisation. Helps hotels and destinations deliver truly personal holiday experiences. FascinatingTravelers.com/business Matching travellers with hotel and holiday experiences that fit their personality

Publications and Research – Researchgate.net/profile/

Marketing Hotels & Tourism Online – Book Series

Marketing Hotels and Tourism Online- book 1 Website

HOTEL WEBSITE MARKETING STRATEGIES

The first in the series of hotel and tourism marketing

Amazon Paperback

Amazon Kindle

#1 Besteller

Marketing Hotel And Tourism News, Research and Tutorials Blog

How to Build Your Business Online

TravelWacthNews.com
Travelersinsights.com
Dominica-Magazine

Bigearth TV, April 2009, Barbadso By Any Means
Hi Society Magazine, February 2004. Hi Travel Barbados.

World Saga Travel Journals 1999- present. Barbados history and lifestyles.

The Barbados Tourism Encyclopedia https://barbados.org

1994-1996. Video, research and editorial, graphics, photography, mapping, HTML and programming. Site launched
in 1997.

GIS and Multi-media

Used to promote and Sustain Tourism

Earth Observation Magazine:

September 1994. Review of a GIs implementation
for tourism planning and promotion.

Sensitivity Mapping

Earth Observation Magazine,
July 1994. Presented a system approach to
developing a sensitivity indexfor impact assessment and contingency planning.

Coastal Zone Management, Sulawesi, Indonesia

CIDA,
1994. Worked with a multidisciplinary team of
professional environmentalists, coastal engineers and legislative authorities
to develop an Information Atlas for North Sulawesi, Coastal Zone Planning
and Management (CIDA Water Resource Project). Information included statistical
data as well as geo-physical and natural resource data obtained from air
photo interpretation and site inspection.

Spatial Technology

As an aid to sustainable development of natural resources

Department of Natural Resources- NS, 1993. Coordinated and was principle
author of a study to assess relevant technology in planning and managing
the development of Natural Resources. (Department of Natural Resources,
Nova Scotia. Preliminary analysis and strategic assessment).

Strategic Planning and Promotional Systems for Tourism

ACOA,
1992. Study of the application of relevant technology, including GIs
and Multimedia to tourism. (Study conducted for ACOA as part of an analysis
of a concept to use multimedia and spatial systems for the development
of a comprehensive tourism planning and promotional system).

GIs and ecosystem management in the Caribbean

CIDA,
1992. Study funded by CIDA under the starter study program to explore
the potential of using GIs as an aid to sustainable development and
ecosystem management in the Caribbean.

GIs in Marine Applications

Sea Technology,
1991. Published article on a new digital environmental Information Atlas
and distributed decision support system for resource managers and researchers.
(Gulf of Maine GIs Database Aids Oceanographers, Resource Managers.
Sea Technology, November 1991).

Computers in Education

November 1991. The paper discusses potential educational

uses of GIs, particularly in the area of environmental studies. (Computer
Software for Environmental Studies.)

Computer Distribution in the Maritimes

ACOA,
1988. Study to classify the systems professionals in the Maritimes.
Reviewed the cost structure of distribution in Canada and in the Maritimes.
Evaluated the potential for computer assembly and distribution in the
region.

Large Scale Systems Automation

1982. Project
study, systems design and coordination for the conversion to an automated
online invoicing and inventory system within a large multi-national organisation.
Conducted concurrently with Masters of Computer Science programme.

Paperless Multi-Branch transactions

1979. A concept
for Electronic Document Interchange developed for Anixter International.
This was later adopted and widely publicised by IBM.

Electronic Document Management System (EDMS)

1986. Evaluated
aspects of the emerging technologies in Image capture, laser disks, and CD-ROMand interactive video etc. Reviewed the leading EDMS software and customer
potential.

Retail Plumbing,
“An Analysis of Supply and Demand”

Westburne,
1972. A follow-up study to the distribution report of 1970. This focused
on the “Do It Yourself” phenomenon and its impact on the plumbing
and electrical trades.

Mechanical Trades Distribution Study

Westburne,1970.
A private study conducted for Westburne International of the trends and
opportunities in distribution within the mechanical trades in Canada.
The one-hundred-page report was circulated to all company directors and
managers and became the framework for strategic action.

Caribbean Study

1969. A 6
month study of the Caribbean for potential Canadian investors. Study reported
on all the leeward islands and covered Political and social conditions, infrastructure
and real estate. It was presented to the Board of Directors and resulted
in a modest investment in Barbados. .

More about Ian R. Clayton BIO

See Podcast Rising. Read the blog – see the YouTube shorts channel

Ian R. Clayton — Cultural Storyteller BIO

Cultural Work & Platforms

Book Focus

Mission & Ethic

Multimedia Storytelling & Public Dialogue

The Book: Rogues in Paradise

The Rogue’s View (Fun Ian R Clayton Sketch)