If you fancy being transported to Jamaica 1960’s in a poignant literary novel that truly places you in the atmospheric Caribbean, then “The Pages of the Sea” is for you. 

 

Written in both Caribbean and Standard English, in a way that is easy to follow and understand, you truly feel you are in Wheeler’s shoes as she manoeuvres her way around life, living without her mother, asking each day ‘when we mudda sending f’us?’ My heart went out to her for her trauma, the sudden upheaval of living arrangements, a new school and growing up as a girl without her mother but at the same time the story remained at times funny, colourfully vibrant as the Caribbean is known for and enchantingly lyrical that couldn’t be more beautifully written, even by a more seasoned author. 

 

As Windrush continues to be a major scandal in the UK after coming to people’s attention in 2018, the story of the neglected children left behind is a little talked about subject, with most of the media focusing on the adult ‘Windrush Generation’ itself. I am guilty myself of this and only now realise that some children were never sent for at all by their migrating parents. 

 

The author has created a beautifully emotive and poignant story that portrays this plight inspired purely by the author’s own personal experience at being left behind when her mother travelled to England and which will no doubt resonate with thousands of other people too. 

 

As a debut novel, this is one of the most powerful and important stories I’ve read and should be widely promoted to show the other tragic side to the more commonly known stories about the ‘Windrush Generation’. 

 

#ThePagesOfTheSea - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️