George (The Teenage Years)

Gilly

Description

This is an introduction of George to the masses. He is the representative of a whole lost generation (lost to the government and the British public) who have recently been in the news as the revelation of who they are comes out.
George tells the story of an 11-year-old Windrush boy who arrived in England from the island of Jamaica in 1965. The story is narrated in third-person and speaks of the boy’s first experience of being in a cold country, the absence of an introduction to his new family, the difficulties he faces as a new boy in a new school, the struggles to find his place, his resistance in conforming to stereotypical expectations and his fights to maintain the self-pride and independence he learnt from his early years in Jamaica.
As George progresses through the school and struggles to assimilate, he moves from being the outsider to become a cultural educator and a facilitator of his peers and brings together the different groups within his association. However, he has difficulty reconciling his family and church life with his secular associates. Through the boy’s eyes, the narrator depicts how it was at that time for the West Indian immigrant community in London and the group of unnoticed children whom they brought from the islands, how they mixed and associated with each other, their embryonic family and the indigenous population.

Sujets

• Historical fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
• Date de parution: 08 janvier 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528995177
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

G eorge ( T he T eenage Y ears)
Gilly
Austin Macauley Publishers
2021-01-08
George (The Teenage Years) Introduction Chapter 1 In the Taxi The Meeting Domesticated Chapter 2 A Shopping Experience Pastor Smith and Sister Myrtle Chapter 3 Going to School The New Boy Is an Old Timer Chapter 4 Moving House Mr and Mrs Ellis Mr And Mrs Neish News of a Funfair Adventure on a Bicycle Anita’s Problems Matthew And Yvadne Chapter 5 Time for Bonding The Train Wash A Rich Saturday Afternoon Auntie Pearl The Boys and The Intelligent Fool The Best Man Chapter 6 On the Move Again Another Arrival The Animated Dumplings The Good Samaritan Mrs Robinson’s Hero Chapter 7 On the Move Yet Again A Series of Unpleasant Events A Stand-In Parent Trespass George Acquired His Own Room / Agatha’s Conscience Chapter 8 The Children are the Teachers An Interesting Bible Story Brothers of Fire Take Courage (The Alcoholic Rooster) The Visitors Boy Cinders and the Sabbath Chapter 9 Quarrelsome Times Chapter 10 A New Teacher Has Arrived at School Savings (Likkle And Mikkle Mek Mukkle) The City Chapter 11 Back Home Again Chapter 12 A New School Year A Role Model Roll on Sweet Sixteen Holiday Plans Chapter 13 A Work Experience Chapter 14 The Brink of Adulthood (Adolescent) Potatoes Chapter 15 On the Last leg
The author, Gilly, moved from the Island of Jamaica at the age of eleven, grew up, married and lived in South London until he moved to Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, where he has been with his wife and two daughters for more than thirty years. He says that he is a musician who plays more than one instrument badly but a good singer, and an active member of several community and church choirs.
This book is dedicated to my daughter, Davinia. and my friend, Anouska.
These two young people were children to whom I constantly told stories based on my childhood experiences. They always wanted to hear more. As a small child, Davinia would always say at the end of a story, “Again” and keep on saying it until I would repeat it. As teenagers, they both repeatedly encouraged me to write a book so that they could have the stories to tell their children one day. When Davinia went to university to study art and illustration, she decided that her final project would be to illustrate a children’s book and that book should be mine. So, she persuaded me to write the first few chapters for her to illustrate, and further twisted my arm into reading and recording said chapters. The recordings became part of an art installation and so the book was started.
Copyright © Gilly (2021)
The right of Gilly to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781528995146 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781528995153 (Hardback)
ISBN 9781528995177 (ePub e-book)
ISBN 9781528995160 (Audiobook)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2021)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ
I would like to thank the following people who have willingly read chapters of my manuscript, and provided feedback and encouragement in bringing this novel to completion:
My family (Sway, Davinia and Antonia), Bernard Pratt, Mark Griffiths, Ken Murray, Althea Lynch and Charmaine Bennett, who all kept asking me, “Have you finished that book yet?”
Introduction
This is an introduction of George to the masses. He is a representative of a whole lost generation (lost to the government and the British public), who have recently been in the news as the revelation of who they are comes out.
George tells the story of an 11-year-old Windrush boy who arrived in England from the island of Jamaica in 1965. The story is narrated in the third person and speaks of the boy’s first experience of being in a cold country, the absence of an introduction to his new family, the difficulties he faced as a new boy in a new school in a new country, the struggles to find his place and his resistance in conforming to stereotypical expectations, and his fights to maintain the self-pride and independence he learnt from his early years in Jamaica.
As George progresses through the school and struggles to assimilate, he moves from being the outsider to become a cultural educator and a facilitator of his peers and brings together the different groups within his association. However, he has difficulty reconciling his family and church life with his secular associates. Through the boy’s eyes, the narrator depicts how it was at that time for the immigrant community of West Indians in London and the group of unnoticed children whom they brought from the Islands, how they mixed and associated with each other, their embryonic family and the indigenous population.
It is incredible that I realised so long ago that this group of children were not recognised or accounted for in the statistics of the immigrants, who came from the West Indies during this period, and felt compelled to tell the story of George. To find that this situation of the Windrush generation has been revealed and come to light in the public domain just before publication is another wonder and one that propels the need to have this story told.
Because George left Jamaica after the island was independent, he had a Jamaican passport and was able to become naturalised and obtain a British passport without difficulty many years before the government embarked on their policy of austerity and anti-immigration initiative. This enabled him to produce the required documentation for his employment status. Many of the children of this era, who left Jamaica prior to independence were actually British nationals and did not need passports for their travel to Britain, and therefore did not have these documents when called for, and consequently had to suffer the indignity of the loss of their jobs, status, healthcare and their homes. However, this is another story to be told in George, the later years.
Chapter 1 In the Taxi

George sat quietly beside his stepmother in the back seat of the taxi, contemplating many things.
“You are very quiet George,” said Agatha, “what are you thinking about? Or are you always this quiet?” she asked, in a kind voice.
George did not reply for a long while because he was thinking about so many things at the same time. He had his hands buried deep inside the pockets of the small, black, woollen duffel coat she had brought to the house, where he had stayed for the past two days and put on him there. Even over his two-piece suit, the coat felt so loose that it seemed like a blanket around him. He fiddled with the strangely shaped little toggle fasteners, which hooked into corresponding loops on the other side to fasten the garment together. He had never seen anything like this before, he thought. How heavy the coat felt on him. If Agatha had not put it over his shoulders and told him to push his arms into the sleeves, he might not even have guessed how to put it on at all, How do people walk about all day in all this heavy clothes? he thought to himself, It is only three o’ clock and the whole place is dark already, if it wasn’t for the street lamps, it would be as black as middle night. Come to think about it, I can’t remember seeing any sunshine today, nor yesterday. It wasn’t raining, and yet, everywhere is wet. What a whole heap of cars and trucks them have all over the place, going this way and that way and what a lot of bright lights, goodness! Everything is happening at the same time. My! My! What a busy place this is.
George was accustomed to addressing the person by name before speaking to them. For instance, he would say to his grandmother in Jamaica, “Tasnat, can I come with you? Old Reggie can I have this or that,” But no one had told him his stepmother’s name and he could not say Stepmother. In fact, he did not even know the word stepmother because in Jamaica, she would have been his mother-in-law and that was what his auntie had called her. He wondered if she would be as Auntie Egla had described.
Auntie Egla was a tiny, fair-skinned Negro lady with kind, gentle eyes, and a personality to match. She had long, jet black hair, which she usually wore hidden in a bun. George and his cousins had thought this was such a waste, as she was so very pretty, especially on the rare occasion when they saw her with her hair down. George wanted to remember every detail about Auntie Egla because she was the only person who was positive about him coming to England. In fact, she was extremely positive. She seemed to be positively excited about his pending travel. She was the only relative who told him nice things about the place which he was soon to call home and his father’s wife, whom he would eventually call mother. If it were not for Auntie Egla and her attention to detail, George would have arrived in England without the knowledge of some very essential information. For instance, he would not have known that his father was married and that he had a stepmother and younger siblings. She was the sister of George’s father, who had asked her to give George special attention and counselling about life in England, so that he would be encouraged to join him and this she did, without