Showing results by narrator "Donna Berlin" in All Categories

Growing up in British Guiana in the 1950s, Sharon Maas has everything a shy child with a vivid imagination could wish for. She spends her days studying bugs in the backyard, eating fresh mangos straight from the tree, and tucked up on her granny’s lap losing herself in books. But with her father campaigning for Guiana’s independence and her mother away for work, there’s a void in Sharon’s heart, and she craves rules and structure. The books she devours give her a glimpse of life in a faraway country: England.

When Yvette receives a call to say her estranged father, Joe, has been attacked in a seemingly random act of violence, she rushes to his side. But when she arrives, she finds a man different to the larger-than-life father of her memories. Joe is broken, too scared to describe his attacker to the police, and seemingly haunted by memories of his past - memories he’s fought to suppress. About the boat journey that brought him and his wife, Dolina, to their new home in a hostile and unwelcoming Britain - as part of the Windrush Generation. About the secrets left behind in St Lucia.

On a misty Monday - 21st June 1948 - the MV Empire Windrush sailed up the Thames and anchored at Tilbury Dock, London. There were a total of 1,027 passengers on board with 802 passengers from British Colonies in the West Indies. The infamous images of the passengers walking down the gangplank the next morning would be the moment the Windrush Generation was born. A Circle of Five reflects on the stories of the 300,000 or so making the same journey between 1948 and 1971 by showcasing the voices of five Jamaican women, Evelyn, Emma, Irene, Ivy and Melissa.