“All that lily-of-the-valley scent. Hours spent waving my hair and powdering my face to porcelain perfection. Silk stockings, red lips and hands as soft as lah-di-lah. And I was married to a man who wouldn’t have noticed if I’d come to bed in my gas mask. If I could have asked Aunt Dorothy, “Is thatContinue reading “RKS Literature: Sex and a Gas Mask (Andrea Levy)”
Category Archives: literature
RKS Literature: Frightened to Get in the Family Way! (Andrea Levy)
“All those warnings of things that could leave me in the family way. I’d been scared simple from the time my breasts first poked up in my jumper. Kissing at the garden gate, canoodling at the pictures. If he stuck his tongue in your mouth that was definitely a baby. If he touched your breast,Continue reading “RKS Literature: Frightened to Get in the Family Way! (Andrea Levy)”
RKS Literature: Butcher’s Daughter Stuck on the Farm in Rural England
“I should have been going to dances, larking with men who had Clark Gable hair and whispered in my ear I was as pretty as an English rose. My legs should have been caressed in silk stockings, a pointed toe and a delicate heel on my shoe as I stepped from a car. I shouldContinue reading “RKS Literature: Butcher’s Daughter Stuck on the Farm in Rural England”
RKS Literature: World War II Luck in England (Andrea Levy)
“Luck is a funny thing. To some only a large win of money at the pools is luck. Or finding a valuable jewel at your feet on a London street. That surely is luck. But during the war luck take another turn. The bomb that just miss you is luck. Only your leg blown offContinue reading “RKS Literature: World War II Luck in England (Andrea Levy)”
RKS Literature: Lynching Welcoming Party for Jamaican Soldiers in Virginian U.S. Army Base: A Warm American Welcome
“I soon realized we were lucky the American authorities did not let us off the camp in Virginia. We West Indians, thinking ourselves as good as any man, would have wandered unaware, greeting white people who would have swung us from the nearest tree for merely passing the time of day with them. And myContinue reading “RKS Literature: Lynching Welcoming Party for Jamaican Soldiers in Virginian U.S. Army Base: A Warm American Welcome”
RKS Literature: A Jamaican Contemplates Fighting a White Man’s War (Andrea Levy)
“Perhaps my cousin Elwood was right, ‘Man this is a white man’s war. Why you wanna lose your life for a white man? For Jamaica, yes. To have your own country, yes. That is worth a fight. To see black skin in the governor’s house doing more than just serving at the table and sweepingContinue reading “RKS Literature: A Jamaican Contemplates Fighting a White Man’s War (Andrea Levy)”
RKS Literature: A Jamaican Soldier Reflects on Food and Women (Andrea Levy)
“My mirror spoke to me. It said: ‘Man, women gonna fall at your feet’. In my uniform of blue-from the left, from the right, from behind-I looked like a god. And this uniform did not even fit me so well. But what is a little bagging on the waist and tightness under the arm whenContinue reading “RKS Literature: A Jamaican Soldier Reflects on Food and Women (Andrea Levy)”
RKS Literature: Coloreds Coming to England for Spectacles and Good Grins Courtesy of NHS
“For the teeth and glasses.” That was the reason so many colored people were coming to this country, according to my next-door neighbour Mr Todd. ‘That National Health Service-it’s pulling them in, Mrs Bligh. Giving things away at our expense will keep them coming.’ He said. He might have had a point except, according toContinue reading “RKS Literature: Coloreds Coming to England for Spectacles and Good Grins Courtesy of NHS”
RKS Literature: A Jamaican Thrilled at the Possibility to Move to 1948 England (Andrea Levy)
“But what aroused her more than anything else about this man was the thrill of knowing that he wanted to make a life for himself in England. She could see herself ringing the bell on that tall house. He wants to return to England soon. She would sail far away from this island, safe inContinue reading “RKS Literature: A Jamaican Thrilled at the Possibility to Move to 1948 England (Andrea Levy)”
RKS Literature: The “Superiority” of White Women in 1948 Jamaica (Andrea Levy)
“I hungered to make those children regard me with as high an opinion as I had for the principal and tutors at my college. Those white women whose superiority encircled them like an aureole, could quieten any raucous gathering by just placing a finger to a lip. Their formal elocution, their eminent intelligence, their imperialContinue reading “RKS Literature: The “Superiority” of White Women in 1948 Jamaica (Andrea Levy)”
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