Claudette Beckford-brady

Sweet Home, Jamaica Claudette Beckford-brady

Publisher Marketing: Michelle Freeman: Strong-willed and opinionated: feisty, determined and independent. Knows what she wants and goes after it. Mavis: Michelle's stepmother: lacks formal education but possesses a sharp intelligence and innate common sense. Grandma Miriam: Michelle's maternal grandmother and matriarch of the Campbell family. Richard Armstrong: Tall, good-looking; dreadlocked. Entirely too sure of himself in Michelle's opinion, but captures her heart anyway. Michelle Freeman, affectionately known as Shell or Shellie, was born in Jamaica but migrated to England with her parents at the age of three. At age thirteen her life is thrown into turmoil when she accidentally discovers that her father's wife, whom she had always taken for granted as being her mother, is in fact, not. This shocking discovery leads her to begin a search for her biological mother. The search eventually takes her to Jamaica where she finds a large extended maternal family and develops a deep and abiding love for the island of her birth. After leaving school and university in London, where she studied journalism, Shellie decides to leave the UK and practise her profession in Jamaica. However, all is not plain sailing, as she encounters culture shock, prejudice and jealousy and comes to the realisation that her beloved island is not the idyllic paradise she had supposed it to be. Set in South London and on the beautiful island of Jamaica, the story spans seventeen years, following the fiery and feisty young woman through her teenage years, young love and tragedy, and into adulthood and more conflicts and clashes. Contributor Bio:  Beckford-Brady, Claudette CLAUDETTE BECKFORD-BRADY was born in Old Harbour, Jamaica. In 1964 at the age of seven she joined her parents in Gloucester, England. After leaving school in 1973 she held various clerical and administrative positions before moving to London in 1976, where she joined the British civil service. In 1981 she left the civil service and went to London Borough of Lambeth where she progressed to the level of Personnel & Training Officer. She lived in Brixton, South London from 1977 to 1990 when she left the UK to return to Jamaica where she now resides. Over the years Claudette has won a number of awards for her short stories; SWEET HOME, JAMAICA is her first full length book and this current edition is published in two volumes, although there is a single volume edition which incorporates both Volume 1 and Volume two in a single cover.