largely written by emigrants and published in Britain or the USA. Books published in
Jamaica include Christine Craig’s Right On, Carmen Manley’s The Land of Wood and
Water, and Dennis Ranston’s The Kite and Petchary. The Third Gift by Jan Carew was
published in mainland Guyana and Step by Step by Maria Gonzalez in Trinidad-Tobago.
Writers such as Philip Sherlock, C.Everard Palmer and Andrew Salkey were among the
first authors to produce books which, although published in Britain, reflected the West
Indian landscape and provided West Indian children with a positive self-image.
Philip Sherlock retold traditional West Indian folk-tales, first in Anansi the Spider Man
(1956) which contained fifteen Anansi stories of the kind originally told in West Africa,
and then in West Indian Folk-Tales (1966). Andrew Salkey, a Jamaican, was one of the
first to set stories in the West Indies. Beginning with Hurricane (1964), his early books
are all concerned with natural disasters. C.Everard Palmer, another Jamaican, in The
Cloud with the Silver Lining (1967) uses the theme of children restoring the family
fortunes: two young boys make enough money to buy a buggy for their crippled
grandfather. In his Big Doc Bitter Root (1968) the story is told by a girl, Misty; she
describes how a quack doctor comes to the village and deceives nearly everyone except
her father.
In the 1970s, authors and illustrators who had either emigrated to Britain
themselves, or were the children of emigrants began to emerge. Grace Hallworth, a
librarian who became a professional story-teller, has published several traditional
collections, such as Listen to this Story (1977). Errol Lloyd, a distinguished author-
illustrator sets Nini at Carnival (1978) in London, but the pictures conjure up all the
bustle, excitement, and colour of a Caribbean carnival. Jenny Stow used a vibrant
Caribbean setting for The House that Jack Built (1992).
James Berry grew up in Jamaica and arrived in Britain in 1948. His A Thief in the
Village (1987) is a collection of atmospheric and humorous short stories about children
and young people in present-day Jamaica. His retelling of Anansi stories, some recalled
from childhood, uses the traditional West Indian spelling of the name: Anancy
Spiderman: Twenty Caribbean Folk Stories (1988). John Agard was an established poet
in Guyana when he emigrated to Britain in 1977, publishing his first book for children,
Letters for Lettie in 1979. He writes in both standard English and Creole. Another poet is
Grace Nichols, from Guyana (Come into my Tropical Garden (1988)).
These writers and illustrators have won distinction in the world of children’s books:
Rita Phillips Mitchell’s Hue Boy (illustrated by Caroline Binch) won the 0–5 category of
the Smarties Prize in 1992.
Authors look at the West Indies from various angles. Anne Marie Linden’s Emerald
Blue (1994) is based on her childhood memories of living in rural Barbados with a much-
loved grandmother. Kate Elizabeth Ernest also draws on her own experience both of
rural Jamaica and urban England in Hope Leaves Jamaica (1993). Caroline Binch’s
Gregory Cool (1994) reverses the situation. British-born Gregory visits his grandparents
and cousin in Tobago—dislikes the food, and prefers to play with his pocket video game
than feed goats or swim in the sea.
One of the most distinguished of West Indian writers is Rosa Guy, who left Trinidad
for New York, and sets her fiction, such as The Friends (1974), and Paris, Pee Wee and Big
Dog (1984) there.
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