Ferdinand Dennis (born 18 March 1956)
["Ferdinand Dennis"]
, British Council
The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lan ...
, Literature Matters. is a writer, broadcaster, journalist and lecturer, who is
Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
n by birth but at the age of eight moved to
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, where his parents had migrated in the late 1950s.
[Ferdinand Dennis]
"My father's island"
''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', 10 June 2000. Dr James Procter notes: "Perhaps as a result of his
Caribbean background (a region probably marked more than any other by movements and migration), Dennis is a writer ultimately more concerned with routes than roots. This is foregrounded in much of his fictional work, notably his most recent and ambitious novel to date, ''Duppy Conqueror'' (1998), a novel which moves from 1930s Jamaica to postwar London and
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
, to Africa. Similarly, Dennis' non-fiction centres on journeying rather than arrival, from ''Behind the Frontlines: Journey into Afro-Britain'' (1988) to ''Voices of the Crossing: The Impact of Britain on Writers from Asia, the Caribbean and Africa'' (2000)."
Biography
Ferdinand Dennis was born in
Kingston, Jamaica,
[Ferdinand Dennis author page]
HarperCollins. and grew up in
north Paddington,
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, where he and his siblings – two brothers and a sister – relocated in 1964 to join their parents.
Dennis read sociology at
Leicester University
, mottoeng = So that they may have life
, established =
, type = public research university
, endowment = £20.0 million
, budget = £326 million
, chancellor = David Willetts
, vice_chancellor = Nishan Canagarajah
, head_label ...
(1975–78),
[Ferdinand Dennis]
at LinkedIn
LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Launched on May 5, 2003, the platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job se ...
. after which he was employed as an educational researcher in
Handsworth,
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
. He studied for a master's degree at
Birkbeck College,
London University
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree- ...
(1978–79).
In 1991 he was made Honorary Research Fellow at Birkbeck.
He received a Wingate Scholarship in 1995. He has lectured in
Nigeria
Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
, and from 2003 to 2011 taught Creative and Media Writing courses at
Middlesex University.
As a broadcaster, he has written and presented numerous talks and documentaries for
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
– such as the series ''After Dread and Anger'' (1989), ''Journey Round My People'', for which he travelled in West Africa, ''Back To Africa'' (1990) and ''Work Talk'' (1991–92; conversations with black people living in Britain, including
Diane Abbott,
Valerie Amos
Valerie Ann Amos, Baroness Amos, (born 13 March 1954) is a British Labour Party politician and diplomat who served as the eighth UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. Before her appointment to ...
,
Emeka Anyaoku
Chief Emeka Anyaoku, GCVO, CFR, CON (born 18 January 1933)"Anyaoku, Eleazar Chukwuemeka", in ''Africa Who's Who'', London: Africa Journal for Africa Books Ltd, 1981, p. 137. is a Nigerian diplomat of Igbo descent. He was the third Commonwea ...
,
Norman Beaton
Norman Lugard Beaton (31 October 1934 – 13 December 1994) was a Guyanese actor long resident in the United Kingdom. He became best known for his role as Desmond Ambrose in the Channel Four television comedy series ''Desmond's''. The writer S ...
,
Winston Branch
Winston Branch (born in 1947) is a British artist originally from Saint Lucia, the sovereign island in the Caribbean Sea. He still has a home there, while maintaining a studio in California. Works by Branch are included in the collections of T ...
,
Margaret Busby,
Merle Collins,
Val McCalla, and
Josette Simon
Josette Patricia Simon is a British actress. She trained for the stage at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, and played the part of Dayna Mellanby in the third and fourth series of the television sci-fi series ''Blake's 7'' fro ...
, produced by
Marina Salandy-Brown
Marina Salandy-Brown FRSA, Hon. FRSL, is a Trinidadian journalist, broadcaster and cultural activist. She was formerly an editor and Senior Manager in Radio and News and Current Affairs programmes with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) ...
) – as well as a television programme about Africa for
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
.
Dennis has also worked as a journalist for publications including ''Frontline'' and ''
City Limits'' magazines.
His writing has been published in a range of magazines, newspapers and anthologies, among them ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', ''
Granta
''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and ma ...
'', ''
Critical Quarterly
''Critical Quarterly'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal in the humanities published by Wiley. The editor-in-chief is Colin MacCabe. The journal notably published the Black Papers on education starting in 1969.
History Early years
''Critical Qua ...
'', ''Black British Culture and Society: A Text Reader'' (ed. Kwesi Owusu, 2000), ''Hurricane Hits England: An Anthology of Writing About Black Britain'' (ed.
Onyekachi Wambu
Onyekachi Wambu (born 1960) is a Nigerian-British journalist and writer. He has directed television documentaries for the BBC, Channel 4 and PBS.
Life
Onyekachi Wambu was born in Nigeria in 1960. In 1970, after the Nigerian Civil War, he and his ...
, 2000), and ''IC3: The Penguin Book of New Black Writing in Britain'' (2000).
With
Naseem Khan, Dennis co-edited ''Voices of the Crossing: The Impact of Britain on Writers from Asia, the Caribbean and Africa'' (2000). He also was a co-researcher (with
Kole Omotoso and Alfred Zack-Williams) of the 1992 compilation ''West Africa Over 75 Years: selections from the raw material of history'', edited by Kaye Whiteman.
Dennis is the author of three novels – ''The Sleepless Summer'' (1989), ''The Last Blues Dance'' (1996); and ''Duppy Conqueror'' (1998) – and two travelogues: ''Behind the Frontlines: Journey into Afro-Britain'' (1988) – his first book, which won the
Martin Luther King Memorial Prize
The Martin Luther King Memorial Prize was instituted by novelist John Brunner and his wife and was awarded annually to a literary work published in the US or Britain that was deemed to improve interracial understanding,Derek Humphry''Good Life, Goo ...
– and ''Back to Africa: A Journey'' (1992), in which he visited
Cameroon
Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...
,
Ghana
Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
,
Guinea,
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ...
,
Liberia,
Nigeria
Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
and
Senegal
Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 ...
. In 2021, his collection of short stories written over five decades, ''The Black and White Museum'', came out from HopeRoad Publishers.
Dennis was elected to the management committee of the
Society of Authors
The Society of Authors (SoA) is a United Kingdom trade union for professional writers, illustrators and literary translators, founded in 1884 to protect the rights and further the interests of authors. , it represents over 12,000 members and ass ...
in October 2017, to serve for a three-year term.
Critical reception
Dennis's first novel, ''The Sleepless Summer'' (1989), is said to enjoy "cult status in Britain's African-Caribbean community",
while his second, ''The Last Blues Dance'' (1996), is described as "Warm, humorous, poignant... a wonderfully engaging novel that weaves together the lives of a rich cast of characters, creating a sense of both community and individuality, tenderness and suspense."
["The Last Blues Dance"]
Kentake Page.
In praise of 1998's ''Duppy Conqueror'', ''
World Literature Today
''World Literature Today'' is an American magazine of international literature and culture, published at the University of Oklahoma. The stated goal of the magazine is to publish international essays, poetry, fiction, interviews, and book revie ...
'' said:
"Ferdinand Dennis is faultless in his depiction of artifacts, customs, speech, and behavior in the three continents of Marshall's adventures; his descriptions of the externals and his analyses of the internal motivations of his characters–both minor and principal–are quite arresting, whether he is writing about 'the unintended arrogance of the shy person' or commenting on 'love that came without duty and expired without money, leaving a rancid odour of guilt.'
''Duppy Conqueror'' is neither a bildungsroman
In literary criticism, a ''Bildungsroman'' (, plural ''Bildungsromane'', ) is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood (coming of age), in which character change is import ...
nor a political treatise, though it shares some of the elements of both subgenres; it is almost a fictional biography of a sixty-year-old thinking proletarian searching for racial and ideological roots. Some readers will read Dennis's novel as a roman a clef, others as a contemporary version of Claude McKay's ''Banana Bottom'' and ''Home to Harlem'' extended to Africa; but few will read it without admiration and considerable satisfaction."
Other favourable coverage came from ''
The Times Higher Education
''Times Higher Education'' (''THE''), formerly ''The Times Higher Education Supplement'' (''The Thes''), is a British magazine reporting specifically on news and issues related to higher education.
Ownership
TPG Capital acquired TSL Education ...
'': "This very ambitious novel is nothing less than a history of the twentieth century, seen though Afro-Caribbean spectacles... Framed as a postcolonial picaresque, it has a hurtling energy which raises it above Dennis's previous work. Finally, and most importantly, Duppy Conqueror brims with humour and low comedy. It is a pleasing change from the wilfully ponderous treatment of historical memory and diasporic identity in much contemporary postcolonial fiction." According to ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...
''′s Rachel Halliburton: "''Duppy Conqueror'' presents a giant's eye view of the exiled African psyche. An ambitious and compelling novel.... This is a novel packed to the brim with layers of symbolism, individual and cultural memories, and fascinating historical stories. Reading it once just won't be enough."
Calling ''Voices of the Crossing'' (2000) "a fine anthology of 14 memoirs by writers from Africa, the Caribbean, India and Pakistan" (
E. A. Markham
Edward Archibald "Archie" Markham FRSL (1 October 1939 – 23 March 2008) was a Montserratian poet, playwright, novelist and academic. He moved to the United Kingdom in 1956, where he remained for most of his life, writing as well as teaching at ...
,
Attia Hosain
Attia Hosain (20 October 1913 – 25 January 1998) was a British-Indian novelist, author, writer, broadcaster, journalist and actor.''Distant Traveller'', new and selected fiction: edited by Aamer Hossein with Shama Habibullah, with forewo ...
,
Beryl Gilroy
Beryl Agatha Gilroy (''née'' Answick; 30 August 1924 – 4 April 2001) was a Guyanese educator, novelist, ethno-psychotherapist, and poet. ''The Guardian'' described her as "one of Britain's most significant post-war Caribbean migrants." She emi ...
,
John Figueroa,
David Dabydeen
David Dabydeen (born 9 December 1955) is a Guyanese-born broadcaster, novelist, poet and academic. He was formerly Guyana's Ambassador to UNESCO (United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organisation) from 1997 to 2010 and the youngest Memb ...
,
Mulk Raj Anand
Mulk Raj Anand (12 December 1905 – 28 September 2004) was an Indian writer in English, recognised for his depiction of the lives of the poorer castes in traditional Indian society. One of the pioneers of Indo-Anglian fiction, he, togethe ...
,
Dom Moraes
Dominic Francis Moraes (19 July 1938 – 2 June 2004) was an Indian writer and poet who published nearly 30 books in English. He is widely seen as a foundational figure in Indian English literature. His poems are a meaningful and substantial c ...
,
Buchi Emecheta,
Rukhsana Ahmad
Rukhsana Ahmad (born 1948) is a Pakistani writer of novels, short stories, poetry, plays, and a translator, who after marriage migrated to England for further studies and pursue a career in writing. She has campaigned for Asian writers, particula ...
,
G. V. Desani,
Homi Bhabha,
James Berry,
Farrukh Dhondy and
Nirad Chaudhuri
Nirad Chandra Chaudhuri CBE (23 November 1897 – 1 August 1999) was an Indian writer.
In 1990, Oxford University awarded Chaudhuri, by then a long-time resident of the city of Oxford, an Honorary Degree in Letters. In 1992, he was made an hon ...
), the ''
New Statesman
The ''New Statesman'' is a British Political magazine, political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney Webb, Sidney and Beatrice ...
'' reviewer
Robert Winder
Robert Winder, formerly literary editor of ''The Independent'' for five years and Deputy Editor of ''Granta'' magazine during the late 1990s, is the author of ''Hell for Leather'', a book about modern cricket, a book about British immigration, and ...
wrote: "...the memoirs in this book, while not the major works of any of the writers concerned, might be as significant as their more ambitious work.... They are more direct, eye-opening tributes to the spirited resolve that underpins all literature, not just 'colonial' literature."
On the publication of his most recent book, ''The Black and White Museum''
Margaret Busby described Dennis as "
writer inspired by the idea and realities of Africa and the African diaspora, which he has explored in novels, short stories and travelogues, creating a unique body of work that deserves greater recognition",
while
's review in ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' said that the collection "confirms Ferdinand Dennis as a flâneur and urban philosopher exploring territory he first began to map in his now classic novels."
Amidst other favourable critical attention,
Gary Younge characterised Dennis as "an elegant writer, both in fiction and non-fiction, who deftly weaves the tales of the diaspora into his work", while
Yvonne Brewster
Yvonne Jones Brewster (née Clarke; born 7 October 1938) is a Jamaican actress, theatre director and businesswoman, known for her role as Ruth Harding in the BBC television soap opera '' Doctors''. She co-founded the theatre companies Talawa ...
noted: "Dennis does not disappoint... Riveting sensitive snapshots of inner city London life."
Bibliography
;Novels
* 1989: ''The Sleepless Summer'',
Hodder & Stoughton.
* 1996: ''The Last Blues Dance'',
HarperCollins
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News ...
.
* 1998: ''Duppy Conqueror'',
Flamingo
Flamingos or flamingoes are a type of wading bird in the family Phoenicopteridae, which is the only extant family in the order Phoenicopteriformes. There are four flamingo species distributed throughout the Americas (including the Caribbea ...
. .
**2020: paperback reprint, Hope Road, , ebook
* 2021: ''The Black and White Museum'' (short stories), Hope Road, paperback
;Non-fiction
* 1988: ''Behind the Frontlines: Journey into Afro-Britain'',
Gollancz.
* 1992: ''Back to Africa: A Journey'',
Sceptre
A sceptre is a staff or wand held in the hand by a ruling monarch as an item of royal or imperial insignia. Figuratively, it means royal or imperial authority or sovereignty.
Antiquity
Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia
The '' Was'' and other ...
.
; As editor
* 2000: ''Voices of the Crossing: The Impact of Britain on Writers from Asia, the Caribbean and Africa'' (co-edited with Naseem Khan),
Serpent's Tail
Serpent's Tail is London-based independent publishing firm founded in 1986 by Pete Ayrton. It specialises in publishing work in translation, particularly European crime fiction. In January 2007, it was bought by a British publisher Profile Book ...
.
Awards
* 1988:
Martin Luther King Memorial Prize
The Martin Luther King Memorial Prize was instituted by novelist John Brunner and his wife and was awarded annually to a literary work published in the US or Britain that was deemed to improve interracial understanding,Derek Humphry''Good Life, Goo ...
for ''Behind the Frontlines: Journey into Afro-Britain''
References
Further reading
* Sofia Aatkar (2020), "Postcolonial flânerie in Caryl Phillips's ''The Atlantic Sound'' and Ferdinand Dennis's ''Behind the Frontlines: Journey into Afro-Britain''", ''
Journal of Postcolonial Writing'', 56:1, 30–42, DOI: 10.1080/17449855.2019.1678061.
* Peter O. Stummer, "An-Other Travelogue: Ferdinand Dennis’s Journey into Afro-Britain", ''
Matatu
In Kenya matatu or matatus (known as mathree in Sheng) are privately owned minibuses used as share taxis. Often decorated, many ''matatu'' feature portraits of famous people or slogans and sayings. Likewise, the music they play is also aimed ...
'', Volume 11, Issue 1, 191–198, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/18757421-90000059.
* Kevin Gopal
"Author Q&A: Ferdinand Dennis" ''Big Issue North'', New Year issue, 2022.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dennis, Ferdinand
Living people
1956 births
20th-century British novelists
20th-century Jamaican novelists
20th-century male writers
20th-century travel writers
Academics of Middlesex University
Alumni of Birkbeck, University of London
Alumni of the University of Leicester
Black British academics
Black British radio presenters
Black British writers
British expatriates in Nigeria
British travel writers
Jamaican emigrants to the United Kingdom
Jamaican male novelists
Jamaican non-fiction writers
Male non-fiction writers
People from Kingston, Jamaica