Tag: Jamaica

The Long Song by Andrea Levy

Gilbert3 Comments

About the book

The child of a field slave on the Amity sugar plantation, July lives with her mother until Mrs. Caroline Mortimer decides to move her into the great house and rename her ‘Marguerite.’ Surviving through violent and chaotic times, July is taught to read and write so that she can help her mistress run the business, but remains bound to the plantation despite her ‘freedom.’ It is the arrival of a young English overseer, Robert Goodwin, that will dramatically change both their lives.

Reviewed by North Baddesley WI Group 2:

This book was enlightening and described human endurance with pathos and humour. It takes a while to get into the story before you are drawn into the characters lives.

Rating: 4 Stars

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Small Island by Andrea Levy

Gilbert19 Comments

About the book

It is 1948, and England is recovering from a war. But at 21 Nevern Street, London, the conflict has only just begun. Queenie Bligh’s neighbours do not approve when she agrees to take in Jamaican lodgers, but Queenie doesn’t know when her husband will return, or if he will come back at all. What else can she do? Gilbert Joseph was one of the several thousand Jamaican men who joined the RAF to fight against Hitler. Returning to England as a civilian he finds himself treated very differently. It’s desperation that makes him remember a wartime friendship with Queenie and knock at her door. Gilbert’s wife Hortense, too, had longed to leave Jamaica and start a better life in England. But when she joins him she is shocked to find London shabby, decrepit, and far from the golden city of her dreams. Even Gilbert is not the man she thought he was…

Reviewed by U3A Book Circle 3 Reading Group:

Everyone enjoyed this book. Beautifully portrayed characters. Thought provoking, generating much discussion. Evocative of the post-war era.

Star rating: ****

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The Pirate's Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson

Karin, Hampshire Libraries4 Comments

About the book

Jamaica, 1946. Errol Flynn washes up on in the Zaca, his storm-wrecked yacht. Ida Joseph, the teenaged daughter of Port Antonio’s Justice of the Peace, is intrigued to learn that the ‘World’s Handsomest Man’ is on the island, and makes it her business to meet him. For the jaded swashbuckler, Jamaica is a tropical paradise that Ida, unfazed by his celebrity, seems to share. Soon Flynn has made a home for himself on Navy Island, where he entertains the cream of Hollywood at parties that become a byword for decadence – and Ida has set her heart on marrying this charismatic older man who has singled her out for his attention. Flynn and Ida do not marry, but Ida bears Flynn a daughter, May, who will meet her father but once. The Pirate’s Daughter is a tale of passion and recklessness, of two generations of women and their battles for love and survivial, and of a nation struggling to rise to the challenge of hard-won independence.

Reviewed by Mill Hill Book Club:

Most people enjoyed the book. We all felt we learnt a lot about Jamaica and about Errol Flynn. Most felt it was a little slow in places, but picked up and became more interesting towards the end.

Rating: 3 Stars
 

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