Published: 1994, Headline Publishing Group
Genre: Fiction
Themes: Family, childhood, 1960s, Windrush generation
My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤
The story jumps straight in to the daily life of the Jacobs family, as told by their youngest daughter Angela (or Anne to her father), who captures the noise and vibrancy of her childhood in London during the 1960s. Her parents arrived on the Empire Windrush from Jamaica, and they carry a feeling of difference throughout their lives. They are desperate to fit in, but never want to be seen as any trouble.
Despite the Jamaican connection, much of the book is a universal story of family life in that post war era when everyone wanted to make something of themselves and do well in life. Many of Angela's recollections reflected my own experience as a child of that time, and I could clearly remember the clothes and hairstyles that she describes so vividly. (Yes, yes, I know, I don't look a day over thirty [pause for laughter] but Harold Macmillan was Prime Minister when I was born and it was the same year that Cliff Richard released his first record!!!)
The writing style is gentle but there is no escaping the negative experiences that black families had to deal with when they set up home in tightly knit, and predominantly white, London communities. Other children quickly resort to racial slurs whenever an argument breaks out and the family are sometimes forced to retreat indoors before the comments escalate into anything worse. Their parents encourage them to keep their own company, and not let the others stop them going out, but the greatest hurt is the betrayal of children they saw as friends. After one particularly nasty incident, their mother insists they all go back outside and just carry on playing, as they have every right to, and she comes and stands in the doorway safe in the knowledge that none of the white children are brave enough to throw insults in front of her.
The chapters alternate between the childhood years in the past and later years when Angela is an adult and dealing with her parents in older age. The story cleverly demonstrate how family values resonate down the years and how we tolerate certain behaviours from those we love because we know they are rooted.
I enjoyed this book and read it quickly as it all felt so familiar to me. In the opening chapter, Dad eats six buttered rolls and drinks six cups of tea because the family have rejected them, and to leave untouched on the restaurant table them would be an inexcusable waste. My Dad would have done that too. My Dad would also moan about all the lights being on when he got home from work and would often fiddle with the television aerial when we were all trying to watch something good. Things like that were a common experience back then.
I also empathised with the feeling of helplessness that a daughter feels when the health of a previously strong and capable parent begins to fail. How it is necessary to cope with professionals on their behalf as though the parent and child roles have been reversed.
People my age would probably get more out of this than younger folk, as we will have covered a lot of the same ground as we lived our lives, but it is still a good story and well worth reading.
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