La scrittura di Beryl Gilroy esplora a fondo le esperienze della diaspora caraibica e l'impatto della vita in Gran Bretagna sulle famiglie delle Indie Occidentali. La sua opera letteraria affronta temi come la posizione degli anziani appartenenti a minoranze etniche e la persistente spinta verso la libertà umana. Gilroy ha rivoluzionato la letteratura per l'infanzia britannica come autrice della prima serie a riflettere la presenza nera britannica, e i suoi lavori successivi hanno approfondito le eredità della diaspora africana e caraibica e della schiavitù.
Set in multiracial London, this new novel from Peepal Tree's most popular writer is a comedy about identity, community, growing old (and people and dogs). Beneath the laughter lurks a bittersweet sense of human fragility and impermanence.
The rediscovered classic: an unforgettable memoir by a trailblazing black woman in post-war London, introduced by Bernardine Evaristo. Benjamin Zephaniah: 'A must-read.
Marvella Payne, a 27-year-old secretary, grapples with her vow of abstinence and the constraints of her sheltered life among her family and church community. After resisting unwanted advances from a trainee-deacon, her Aunt Julie introduces her to a penfriend from Guyana, leading Marvella to explore new horizons and question her future. As she navigates the complexities of love and self-identity, the story unfolds with optimism and spiritual depth, culminating in a revitalizing message about faith and love, enhanced by beautiful Biblical verses.
A complex exploration of the cultural conflicts of race and gender, this novel focuses on the journey of a Guyanese woman from her British colonial country to the deeply racist London of the 1950s. Without an extended family support system or an understanding of her new home, she finds comfort in her work with troubled children of fellow black settlers. Confronting racial divides, memories of a cruel childhood, and the oppression of women, this story emphasizes the power of human solidarity beyond ethnicity and gender.
Librarian note: An alternative cover for this ISBN can be found here.This book brings back to life in rich detail the Afro-Guyanese village community of the author's childhood, where there were old people who had been slaves as children and Africa was not forgotten. It was a time when children did not have open access to the world of adults and childhood had not yet disappeared, and perhaps for this reason, the men and women who pass through these stories have a mystery and singularity that are as unforgettable for the reader as they were for the child.
After 20-year-old Thomas Inkle is left the sole survivor of a shipwreck in the West Indies, he is rescued by Yarico, a Carib woman who takes him as her lover. Their erotic encounter, which has a profound effect on both, is explored with poetic, imaginative intensity. Amongst the Caribs, Inkle is a mere child whose survival depends entirely on Yarico's favor and protection. When he is rescued and taken with Yarico to the slave island of Barbados, however, she is entirely at his mercy. Loosely based on a popular narrative in the 17th and 18th centuries, this version of the tale's mythic dimensions are reinterpreted from both a female and a black perspective, engaging the reader in the psychological truths of the characters' experiences while laying the past bare as a text for the present.