The Present (Nippers)

Education & Teaching

Gilroy, Beryl

Goodwin, Nicole

Schools & Teaching

Pan/Macmillan

Conveys the ways in which three generations of a West Indian family have been affected by life in Britain. For the grandparents, confined to the tyranny of an old people's home, a collection of sepia photographs and memories are a vital link to the Caribbean and a rosy past.

The Boy Sandwich (Caribbean Writers Series)

Literature & Fiction

British & Irish

Heinemann

Set in Guyana, this book tells the story of Mama King. Trapped by age and infirmity, Mama becomes too much for her family who send her away to a dreary and claustrophobic rest home - but Mama King does not give in. This book won a GLC Black Literature Competition before publication.

Frangipani House (Caribbean Writers Series)

Stedman and Joanna: A Love in Bondage : Dedicated Love in the Eighteenth Century

United States

Vantage Pr

Black Teacher: 'An unsung heroine of Black British Literature' (Bernardine Evaristo)

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Faber&Faber

The rediscovered classic: a trailblazing Guyanese woman's memoir of post-war London, introduced by Bernardine Evaristo ('full of wit, perceptiveness, humour and compassion')Benjamin Zephaniah: 'A must-read. Her life makes you laugh. Her life makes you cry. Get to know her.'Jacqueline Wilson: 'A superb but shocking memoir ... Imaginative, resilient and inspiring.'Steve McQueen: 'Gilroy blazed a path that empowered generations of Black British educators.'David Lammy: 'This empowering tale of courage, resistance, and triumph is a breath of fresh air.'Diana Evans: 'Important, enlightening and very entertaining, full of real-life drama ... Inspirational.'Paul Mendez: 'Written with a novelist's ear and sense of atmosphere ... A vital and unique testament.'Jeffrey Boakye: 'A landmark. Warm and wise ... Life lessons we can all learn from.' Alex Wheatle: 'A pioneer in many fields and wonderful example for all of us ... Essential reading.'Christie Watson: 'A beautiful memoir of one woman's strength and dignity against the odds.'Denied teaching jobs due to the colour bar. Working in an office amidst the East End's bombsites. Serving as a lady's maid to an Empire-loving aristocrat. Raising two children in suburbia. Becoming one of the first black headteachers in Britain.In 1952, Beryl Gilroy moved from British Guiana to London. Her new life wasn't what she expected - but her belief in education resulted in a revolutionary career. Black Teacher, her memoir, is a rediscovered classic: not only a rare insight into the Windrush generation, but a testament to how her dignity, ambition and spirit transcended her era.**WATERSTONES PICK: JULY'S BEST BOOKS**Reader Reviews:'Incredibly important ... Such an interesting read, and I am so glad that it is being republished.''Wonderful and insightful. I really, thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.''Eye-opening ... A powerful reminder of how far we have come ... Beautifully written ... I wish everyone could have a teacher like Beryl!''Really lovely, and a surprisingly quick read ... I wish I could have met her.''A great piece of history [with] so much relevance even today as it touches upon issues of race, education and female empowerment.''Excellent [on] what it was really like for the Windrush Generation... Highly recommended.'

Black Teacher: 'A Hugely Important Memoir' (Bernardine Evaristo)

Biographies & Memoirs

Evaristo, Bernardine

Community & Culture

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. 

Sunlight on Sweet Water

Short Stories & Anthologies

Peepal Tree Press Ltd.

Marvella Payne is twenty-seven, works as a secretary for British Rail and has pledged to the congregation of the Church of the Holy Spirit that she will abstain from sex before marriage. When she repulses the groping hands of the trainee deacon, Carlton Springle, she resigns herself to growing old with her mother, father and Bible-soaked aunts. But Aunt Julie has other ideas and finds Marvella a penfriend from her native Guyana. When good fortune allows the couple to meet, Marvella awakens to new possibilities as she realises how bound she has been by the voices of her dependent, cosseted childhood. But will marriage be another entrapment, another loss of self?

Gather the Faces

Humor & Satire

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.

In Praise of Love and Children

Literary

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.

Inkle & Yarico

Contemporary

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Books by Gilroy, Beryl