George Lamming

An autobiographical novel of race and class by one of the leading Black writers of the 20th century

In the Castle of My Skin

A compelling and intricate novel of emigration and the effects of colonialism on a people

The Emigrants

In Castle of My Skin

A compelling novel of slavery and colonialism

Natives of My Person

Of Age and Innocence

Season of Adventure

A profound exploration of colonialism, from one of the Caribbean’s most powerful literary voices A powerful reimagining of the age of European exploration, Natives of My Person tells the story of a nameless Commandant who sets sail under imperial orders – somewhere between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries – to locate the fabled island of San Cristobal, a place shrouded in myth and promise. But this is no ordinary voyage. As the expedition unfolds, it becomes a mirror of the imperial mind – ambitious, fractured, haunted by its own contradictions. With poetic intensity and philosophical depth, this is a novel that journeys far beyond the seas it charts. Through shifting perspectives and a richly layered narrative, Lamming unearths the deep scars of conquest and the personal and political dimensions of empire – its delusions, its violence, and the haunting legacy it leaves behind.

In one of the most important of all Caribbean novels, first published in 1958, Lamming probes beneath the surface of apparent reality to explore an ethics of perception, communication and knowledge. In its tension between tragedy and hope, its poetry and multiple layerings, Lamming's novel invites the reader to envision both the possibilities of change and the difficulty of achieving it. --Book Jacket.

Caribbean novelist George Lamming's classic novel of magic, politics, and cultural identity

George Lamming is one of the best known, certainly one of the most highly regarded contemporary writers from the Caribbean. Spanning nearly 60 years and encompassing fiction, poetry and critical essays, Lamming's writing covers the length and breadth of Caribbean intellectual, cultural, political and literary life. Credited as a part of that group of Caribbean activists who awoke the Caribbean to its identity and more specifically to its cultural identity, his works have focused on finding new political and social identity. Indeed, Lamming was a seminal figure in the Caribbean 20th century intellectual tradition and radical anti-colonial tradition. Lamming is best known for his novels. In the Castle of My Skin and The Emigrants take place in England and are largely autobiographical. Of Age and Innocence and Season of Adventure are set on the fictional Caribbean island of San Cristobal. In Water with Berries, the plot of Shakespeare's The Tempest is used to unmask the imperfections of West Indian society while his final novel, Natives of My Person, gives account of the voyage of a slave-trading ship on the triangular trade route from Europe to Africa to the New World colonies. In The Aesthetics of Decolonisation, friend and colleague Anthony Bogues pulls together Lamming's critical works, some previously published, some given as addresses, lectures and interviews. This is accompanied by critical reflections on Lamming's work by noted scholars such as Andaiye and Sandra Pouchet Paquet as well as a foreword by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. This much needed reader on Lamming and his work examines the history of the Caribbean and the categories which continue to shape and influence Caribbean identity in our contemporary world.

The Aesthetics of Decolonisation

The George Lamming Reader

The Emigrants. George Lamming

An examination of the effects of colonialism on those who are held in check

The Pleasures of Exile

Paul M. Buhle

West Indian George Lamming Interviewed by Paul Buhle

C.L.R. James

In a sleepy fishing village in 1930s Barbados, nine-year-old G. leads a life of quiet mischief. While the village lies tranquil in the shadow of its English landlord, Mr Creighton, and his towering house on the hill, G. makes his own fun, crab catching, teasing preachers, and playing among the pumpkin vines. Yet from this world of boyish pursuits, the precocious G. finds himself slowly awakening to strange goings-on in adult society. All around him, sudden bursts of violence-a devastating flood on the morning of his birthday; the headmaster unduly flogging his schoolmates on Empire day-hint at a brutality and destruction lurking beneath the apparently peaceful order things. As the mounting wrongs of the present drive the villagers to rise up against Mr Creighton, the fissures in the façade of his Barbadian 'little England' begin to crack open, laying bare the central, bruising secret at the heart of their shared past. And as the world he knows crumbles before his eyes, G. is spurred ever closer to a life-changing decision, to secure his own freedom as he moves into adulthood. Poetic, unsettling, this classic coming-of-age novel is a story of tragic innocence, as a poor village boy comes to consciousness amid the collapse of colonial rule in mid-century Barbados.

On the Canvas of the World

Een groep kunstenaars ervaren allen op hun eigen manier een vorm een - door hunzelf - opgelegde ballingschap en leven in hun eigen wereld.

George Lamming

About

Books

Join the club