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Verna Wilkins
Verna Allette Wilkins FRSL (born 1943) is a Grenada-born publisher and author, now resident in London. In 1987 she founded the children's books imprint Tamarind Books, "producing quality inclusive literature that featured Black, Asian and minority ethnic children and children with disabilities" out of her concern about the effect on children who did not see themselves represented in books. Tamarind was acquired 20 years later by the Random House Group and became part of Random House Children's Books. Wilkins is also the author of more than 40 picture books and biographies for young people. Background Wilkins was born in Grenada, where her father was a head teacher who was instrumental in introducing Caribbean History to a curriculum dominated by Britain's past. Wilkins has said: "He told us stories relevant to our lives. Stories from Africa and the Caribbean – stories that included people like us. He worked hard to give his children and his pupils self-worth. He used the importe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fellow Of The Royal Society Of Literature
The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 600 Fellows, elected from among the best writers in any genre currently at work. Additionally, Honorary Fellows are chosen from those who have made a significant contribution to the advancement of literature, including publishers, agents, librarians, booksellers or producers. The society is a cultural tenant at London's Somerset House. History The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) was founded in 1820, with the patronage of George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent", and its first president was Thomas Burgess, Bishop of St David's (who was later translated as Bishop of Salisbury). At the heart of the RSL is its Fellowship, "which encompasses the most distinguished writers working today", with the RSL Council, Chair and President, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tooth Fairy
The Tooth Fairy is a fantasy figure of early childhood in Western and Western-influenced cultures. The folklore states that when children lose one of their baby teeth, they should place it underneath their pillow or on their bedside table and the Tooth Fairy will visit while they sleep, replacing the lost tooth with a small payment. Origins In Northern Europe, there was a tradition of ''tand-fé'' or tooth fee, which was paid when a child lost their first tooth. This tradition is recorded in writings as early as the Eddas (c. 1200), which are the earliest written record of Norse and Northern European traditions. In the Norse culture, children's teeth and other articles belonging to children were said to bring good luck in battle, and Scandinavian warriors hung children's teeth on a string around their necks. During the Middle Ages, other superstitions arose surrounding children's teeth. In England, for example, children were instructed to burn their baby teeth to save the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jessica Huntley
Jessica Elleisse Huntley (née Carroll; 23 February 1927 – 13 October 2013) was an African-Guyanese-British woman, a political reformer, prominent race equality campaigner, the pioneering British publisher of black and Asian literature, and a women's and community rights activist. She is notable as the founder in 1969 of Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications in London. Early life She was born in Bagotstown, British Guiana (now Guyana) on 23 February 1927 (on which day the 18th-century Berbice slave uprising is commemorated). She was the only daughter and youngest of four children of James Carroll and his wife, Hectorine Carroll (nee Esbrand). Jessica was three years old when her father died, and her mother struggled financially to raise her children, nevertheless instilling the values of independence, discipline, justice and loyalty that informed Jessica's life. Unable to finish high school on the family's meagre finances, Jessica attended evening classes in shorthand and typing. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joan Anim-Addo
Joan Anim-Addo is a Grenadian-born academic, poet, playwright and publisher, who is Emeritus Professor of Caribbean Literature and Culture in the English and Creative Writing Department at Goldsmiths, University of London. Academic career Born in Grenada in the Caribbean, Joan Amin-Addo joined the faculty of Goldsmiths, University of London, in 1994, as founder and Director of the Centre for Caribbean and Diaspora Studies.Oliver Fry"Professor Joan Anim-Addo receives top award for services to literature" Goldsmiths, 19 December 2016. She has taught at Vassar College in the USA and lectured at many universities internationally, including SUNY Geneseo (USA), the University of Turku in Finland and the University of Trento (Italy). She has also led workshops on creative non-fiction writing. At Goldsmiths, she is the convenor for the undergraduate options "Caribbean Women's Writing" and "Black British Literature", as well as convenor of the "Literature of the Caribbean and its Diaspo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bogle-L'Ouverture Press
Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications (BLP) is a radical London-based publishing company founded by Guyanese activists Jessica Huntley (23 February 1927 – 13 October 2013)Margaret Busby"Jessica Huntley obituary" ''The Guardian'', 27 October 2013. and Eric Huntley (born 25 September 1929)Margaret Andrews, ''Doing Nothing is Not An Option: The Radical Lives of Eric & Jessica Huntley'', Middlesex, England: Krik Krak, 2014. . in 1969, when its first title, Walter Rodney's ''The Groundings With My Brothers'', was published. Named in honour of two outstanding liberation fighters in Caribbean history, Toussaint L'Ouverture and Paul Bogle,"Creation for Liberation Parts 1 and 2 (1979 and 1981)" YouTube video. the company began operating during a period in the UK when "books by Black authors or written with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
London Book Fair
The London Book Fair (LBF) is a large book-publishing trade fair held annually, usually in April, in London, England. LBF is a global marketplace for rights negotiation and the sale and distribution of content across print, audio, TV, film and digital channels. History In 1971, Lionel Leventhal organised The Specialist Publishers’ Exhibition for Librarians, with 22 exhibitors displaying titles on tabletops. Subsequently, now with business partner Clive Bingley, the scope and influence of the event grew and began to encompass bigger and more general publishers. In 1975, the initials LBF made their first appearance when the fair was renamed SPEX'75: The London Book Fair. By 1977 SPEX had been dropped and the title London Book Fair was born. Until 2006 the London Book Fair had been held at the Olympia exhibition centre, but it moved to the ExCeL Exhibition Centre in London's Docklands that year. Due to generally unfavourable feedback from attendees over the new location, such as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margaret Busby
Margaret Yvonne Busby, , Hon. FRSL (born 1944), also known as Nana Akua Ackon, is a Ghanaian-born publisher, editor, writer and broadcaster, resident in the UK. She was Britain's youngest and first black female book publisherJazzmine Breary"Let's not forget" in ''Writing the Future: Black and Asian Writers and Publishers in the UK Market Place'', Spread the Word, April 2013, p. 30. when she and Clive Allison (1944–2011) co-founded Margaret Busby"Clive Allison obituary" ''The Guardian'', 3 August 2011. the London-based publishing house Allison and Busby (A & B) in the 1960s. She edited the anthology ''Daughters of Africa'' (1992), and its 2019 follow-up ''New Daughters of Africa''. She is a recipient of the Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature.Natasha Onwuemezi"Busby to compile anthology of African women writers" ''The Bookseller'', 15 December 2017. In 2020 she was voted one of the "100 Great Black Britons". [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Daughters Of Africa
''Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent from the Ancient Egyptian to the Present'' is a compilation of orature and literature by more than 200 women from Africa and the African diaspora, edited and introduced by Margaret Busby,Tonya Bolden"Book Review: Two Types of Revelation – ''Daughters of Africa''" ''Black Enterprise'', March 1993, p. 12. who compared the process of assembling the volume to "trying to catch a flowing river in a calabash". First published in 1992,Kinna"Daughters of Africa edited by Margaret Busby" Kinna Reads, 24 September 2010. in London by Jonathan Cape (having been commissioned by Candida Lacey, formerly of Pandora Press and later publisher of Myriad Editions), and in New York by Pantheon Books, ''Daughters of Africa'' is regarded as a pioneering work, covering a variety of genres – including fiction, essays, poetry, drama, memoirs and children's writing – and more than 1000 pages in extent. A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samantha Tross
Samantha Tross (born 30 June 1968) is a British consultant surgeon. In 2005 Tross became the first black female orthopaedic surgeon in Britain and has been regularly recognized as one of Britains most influential Black Britons in the annual ''Powerlist''. Personal life Samantha Tross was born in Georgetown in Guyana in 1968 to Sammy and Gwendolin Tross. She was the second of four childrenMorgan, Marjorie H.Blog citing Caribbean Britain: The Cultural and Biographical Directory Historical Geographies. and she is said to have borrowed her brother's toys. She attended primary school in Guyana. Her family moved to Britain when she was 11 years old, because her father who worked for the Commonwealth Secretariat was given a post in Britain. The secretariat is based at Marlborough House in London. /sup> Tross completed her education at private schools in Britain and then at Matthew Boulton College in Birmingham. She excelled at sport, becoming the British national long jump champion fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Grant (singer)
David Grant (born 8 August 1956) is a British singer, comedian and vocal coach. Career Grant became famous in the early 1980s as a member of UK soul/funk duo, Linx, whose biggest hit was "Intuition" in 1981. He began a solo career in 1983 with the top 40 hit "Stop and Go". Further hits included "Watching You Watching Me" and two duets with Jaki Graham, "Could It Be I'm Falling in Love" which reached number five in 1985 and the Todd Rundgren-penned "Mated", which made number 20 later that year. He has also worked as a session singer for artists including Diana Ross, Rick Astley and Lighthouse Family. Grant has become well known, along with his second wife Carrie Grant, as vocal coach on ''Pop Idol''; judge and vocal coach on the BBC TV talent show ''Fame Academy''; and its spin-off '' Comic Relief Does Fame Academy''. In addition he has worked with some of the UK's top pop acts including The Spice Girls, Take That, S Club, and more recently Will Young, Atomic Kitten, Melanie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinwe Chukwuogo-Roy
Chinwe Ifeoma Chukwuogo-Roy MBE (2 May 1952 − 17 December 2012) was a visual artist who was born in Awka (Oka), Anambra state, Nigeria, but spent much of her young life in Ikom on the Cameroon border, before moving back to the family home at Umubele in Awka. She lived in Britain from 1975.Verna Wilkins"Chinwe Chukwuogo-Roy obituary" ''The Guardian'' (London), Other Lives, 30 January 2013. Her paintings, prints and sculptures are predominantly figurative, in the genres of portraiture, still-life, landscape and narrative subjects. She won international attention in 2002 for being the first of only two Nigerian artists (the other being Ben Enwonwu) to have been allowed to paint official portraits of Queen Elizabeth II. Chukwuogo-Roy was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2009 Birthday Honours. Early life and education Chinwe Chukwuogo was born in Ondo State, Nigeria, but moved with her family to Ikom in Cross Rivers State, where her father had ext ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baroness Scotland
Patricia Janet Scotland, Baroness Scotland of Asthal, (born 19 August 1955), is a British diplomat, barrister and politician, serving as the sixth secretary-general of the Commonwealth of Nations. She was elected at the 2015 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and took office on 1 April 2016. She is the first woman to hold the post. She was elevated to the House of Lords in 1997 and, as a British Labour Party politician, served in ministerial positions within the UK Government, most notably as the Attorney General for England and Wales and Advocate General for Northern Ireland. She is a dual citizen of the United Kingdom and Dominica, where she was born. Early life and career Scotland was born on 19 August 1955 in Dominica, the 10th child of 12 born to Roman Catholic parents, a Dominican mother and Antiguan father. Her family emigrated to Walthamstow in north-east London when she was two years old, where she attended Chapel End Primary School and Walthamstow School for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
