Andrea Levy – författare

Small Island by bestselling author Andrea Levy won the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Orange Prize ''Best of the Best'' as well as the Commonwealth Writers'' Prize and the Whitbread. Possibly the definitive fictional account of the experiences of the Empire Windrush generation, it was selected by the BBC as one of its ''100 Novels That Shaped Our World''.''A great read... honest, skilful, thoughtful and important'' GuardianIt is 1948, and England is recovering from a war. But at 21 Nevern Street, London, the conflict has only just begun.Queenie Bligh''s neighbours don''t approve when she agrees to take in Jamaican lodgers, but with her husband, Bernard, not back from the war, she has little choice in the matter.Gilbert Joseph was one of the many Jamaican men who joined the RAF to fight Hitler. But when he returns to England as a civilian he doesn''t receive the welcome he was expecting, and it''s desperation that drives him to knock at Queenie''s door. Gilbert''s wife Hortense, who for years has longer for a better life in England, soon joins him. But London is far from the golden city of her dreams, and even Gilbert is not the man she thought he was.Small Island explores a point in England''s past when the country began to change. In this delicately wrought and profoundly moving novel, Andrea Levy handles the weighty themes of empire, prejudice, war and love, with a superb lightness of touch and generosity of spirit.''An engrossing read - slyly funny, passionately angry and wholly involving'' Daily Mail''Gives us a new urgent take on our past'' Vogue

A passionate and perceptive story full of the pain and the humour of growing up, from Andrea Levy, author of the Orange Prize winning SMALL ISLAND and the Man Booker shortlisted THE LONG SONG.NEVER FAR FROM NOWHERE is the story of two sisters, Olive and Vivien, born in London to Jamaican parents and brought up on a council estate. They go to the same grammar school, but while Vivien''s life becomes a chaotic mix of friendships, youth clubs, skinhead violence, A-levels, discos and college, Olive, three years older and a skin shade darker, has a very different tale to tell...

Now a major BBC TV drama, starring Tamara Lawrance, Lenny Henry and Hayley Atwell.A Sunday Times bestseller (2011), shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, The Long Song by Andrea Levy is a hauntingly beautiful, heartbreaking and unputdownable novel of the last days of slavery in Jamaica, for those who loved Homegoing, The Underground Railroad, or the film 12 Years a Slave.''A marvel of luminous storytelling'' Financial TimesYou do not know me yet. My son Thomas, who is publishing this book, tells me, it is customary at this place in a novel to give the reader a little taste of the story that is held within these pages. As your storyteller, I am to convey that this tale is set in Jamaica during the last turbulent years of slavery and the early years of freedom that followed.July is a slave girl who lives upon a sugar plantation named Amity and it is her life that is the subject of this tale. She was there when the Baptist War raged in 1831, and she was present when slavery was declared no more. My son says I must convey how the story tells also of July''s mama Kitty, of the negroes that worked the plantation land, of Caroline Mortimer the white woman who owned the plantation and many more persons besides - far too many for me to list here. But what befalls them all is carefully chronicled upon these pages for you to peruse.Perhaps, my son suggests, I might write that it is a thrilling journey through that time in the company of people who lived it. All this he wishes me to pen so the reader can decide if this is a novel they might care to consider. Cha, I tell my son, what fuss-fuss. Come, let them just read it for themselves.

The remarkable, emotional debut novel, both funny and moving, which was longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction, from the critically aclaimed Andrea Levy, author of the Orange Prize winning SMALL ISLAND and the Man Booker shortlisted THE LONG SONG.''Better opportunity'' - that''s why Angela''s dad sailed to England from America in 1948 on the Empire Windrush. Six months later her mum joined him in his one room in Earl''s Court......Twenty years and four children later, Mr Jacob has become seriously ill and starts to move unsteadily through the care of the National Health Service. As Angela, his youngest, tries to help her mother through this ordeal, she finds herself reliving her childhood years, spent on a council estate in Highbury.

A unique novel full of humour, wit and passion from Andrea Levy, critically acclaimed author of the Orange Prize winning SMALL ISLAND and the Man Booker shortlisted THE LONG SONG.Faith Jackson fixes herself up with a great job in TV and the perfect flatshare. But neither is that perfect - and nor are her relations with her overbearing, though always loving family. Furious and perplexed when her parents announce their intention to retire back home to Jamaica, Faith makes her own journey there, where she is immediately welcomed by her Aunt Coral, keeper of a rich cargo of family history. Through the weave of her aunt''s storytelling a cast of characters unfolds stretching back to Cuba and Panama, Harlem and Scotland, a story that passes through London and sweeps through continents.

From the critically acclaimed Andrea Levy, Orange Prize winning author of SMALL ISLAND, comes this breathtaking, hauntingly beautiful, heartbreaking and unputdownable novel, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and longlisted for the Orange Prize.You do not know me yet. My son Thomas, who is publishing this book, tells me, it is customary at this place in a novel to give the reader a little taste of the story that is held within these pages. As your storyteller, I am to convey that this tale is set in Jamaica during the last turbulent years of slavery and the early years of freedom that followed.July is a slave girl who lives upon a sugar plantation named Amity and it is her life that is the subject of this tale. She was there when the Baptist War raged in 1831, and she was present when slavery was declared no more. My son says I must convey how the story tells also of July''s mama Kitty, of the negroes that worked the plantation land, of Caroline Mortimer the white woman who owned the plantation and many more persons besides - far too many for me to list here. But what befalls them all is carefully chronicled upon these pages for you to peruse.Perhaps, my son suggests, I might write that it is a thrilling journey through that time in the company of people who lived it. All this he wishes me to pen so the reader can decide if this is a novel they might care to consider. Cha, I tell my son, what fuss-fuss. Come, let them just read it for themselves.

Andrea Levy, author of the Man Booker shortlisted novel THE LONG SONG and the prize-winning, million-copy bestseller SMALL ISLAND, draws together a remarkable collection of short stories from across her writing career, which began twenty years ago with the publication of her first novel, the semi-autobiographical EVERY LIGHT IN THE HOUSE BURNIN''.''None of my books is just about race,'' Levy has said.''They''re about people and history.'' Her novels have triumphantly given voice to the people and stories that might have slipped through the cracks in history. From Jamaican slave society in the nineteenth century, through post-war immigration into Britain, to the children of migrants growing up in ''60s London, her books are acclaimed for skilful storytelling and vivid characters. And her unique voice, unflinching but filled with humour, compassion and wisdom, has made her one of the most significant and exciting contemporary authors.This collection opens with an essay about how writing has helped Andrea Levy to explore and understand her heritage. She explains the context of each piece within the chronology of her career and finishes with a new story, written to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the Great War in 1914. As with her novels, these stories are at once moving and honest, deft and humane, filled with insight, anger at injustice and her trademark lightness of touch.

For the first time, a collection of Andrea Levy''s later works in ebook form, including the Orange Prize-winner SMALL ISLAND and Booker shortlisted THE LONG SONG. SMALL ISLAND is a novel that defined a generation; the story of two couples in post-war London, and their attempts to understand each other. It won the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Orange Prize ''Best of the Best'' as well as the Commonwealth Writers'' Prize and the Whitbread. Possibly the definitive fictional account of the experiences of the Empire Windrush generation, it was selected by the BBC as one of its ''100 Novels That Shaped Our World''. THE LONG SONG, Andrea''s final novel, was a Sunday Times bestseller and shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. It is a hauntingly beautiful, heartbreaking and unputdownable novel of the last days of slavery in Jamaica, following the story of July, a slave on the sugar plantation of Amity. The collection is completed by Andrea''s last full work, SIX STORIES & AN ESSAY. A collection of stories from across her life, she explains the context of each piece within the chronology of her career and finishes with a new story, written to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the Great War in 1914. As with her novels, these stories are at once moving and honest, deft and humane, filled with insight, anger at injustice and her trademark lightness of touch.

A collection that brings together Andrea Levy''s three early novels: EVERY LIGHT IN THE HOUSE BURNIN'', NEVER FAR FROM NOWHERE and FRUIT OF THE LEMON. While Andrea Levy is best known for two of her later works, SMALL ISLAND and THE LONG SONG, these novels have a power all of their own. Her emotional debut, EVERY LIGHT IN THE HOUSE BURNIN'', was longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction, and tells the story of Angela as she casts her mind back to a childhood spent on a council estate in Highbury, as she helps her mother care for an ailing father. NEVER FAR FROM NOWHERE is Andrea''s passionate and perceptive sophomore novel, full of the pain and humour of growing up. It is the story of two sisters, Olive and Vivien, born in London to Jamaican parents and brought up on a council estate. They go to the same grammar school, but while Vivien''s life becomes a chaotic mix of friendships, youth clubs, skinhead violence, A-levels, discos and college, Olive, three years older and a skin shade darker, has a very different tale to tell . . . The collection finishes on FRUIT OF THE LEMON, a masterful novel which centres on young, ambitious Faith Jackson. Furious and perplexed when her parents announce their intention to retire back home to Jamaica, Faith makes her own journey there, where she is immediately welcomed by her Aunt Coral, keeper of a rich cargo of family history. Through the weave of her aunt''s storytelling a cast of characters unfolds, in a novel that sweeps through continents.

Major public figures go back to their beginnings and uncover where they really startedJohn Wilson (acclaimed arts and culture reporter and journalist, and presenter of Front Row, Newsnight Review and Pick of the Week) meets up with a variety of public figures from such diverse fields as food, mathematics, politics, writing and music, and takes them back to the influential schools, teachers, and early workplaces they may have forgotten, but which have not forgotten them. His guests include the first Black trade union leader, Lord Bill Morris; classical violinist Tasmin Little; the late restaurateur and television chef, Gary Rhodes; Lord Digby Jones, former Minister of State for Trade and Investment; the late Women''s Prize and Costa Book Award winning author, Andrea Levy; veteran journalist, broadcaster and former politician Michael Portillo, and many more. The locations too are widely varied and richly formative - from car component manufacturers and specialist vocational institutions to grammar and private schools. Top of the Class is a fascinating look beneath the usual façade of a public figure, perfect for anyone wanting to see the human face behind a successful life story, as well as the teachers, mentors, best friends and rivals who helped them grow into the person they became.Episode guideFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on the following dates:Bill Morris 28 July 2008Tasmin Little 4 August 2008Lauren Child 11 August 2008Gary Rhodes 18 August 2008 Marcus du Sautoy 28 December 2010Rachel Portman 18 January 2011Lord Digby Jones 25 January 2011 Michael Portillo 19 July 2011Andrea Levy 26 July 2011Production creditsPresented by John Wilson Produced by Sarah Taylor © 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd.