Obituary: Andrea Levy |
BBC News
2019-02-15
Andrea Levy, who has died of cancer at the age of 62, told the stories of the Windrush generation with humour and compassion.
As Britain struggled to revive its post-war economy, invitations were extended to citizens of the Empire. “Come and make your lives in the Mother Country,” the advertisements said.
Levy’s books chart the experiences – and disappointments – of the first Caribbean immigrants and their children.
Her Jamaican father, Winston, was aboard the Empire Windrush, the first ship to dock at Tilbury in 1948.
The open arms which the 492 men expected were not forthcoming. Racism and rejection, small rooms and chilly receptions awaited instead.
Her writing could have been angry and preachy, but it wasn’t. It was witty, humane and often moving, and full of richly drawn characters.
She brought ignored and forgotten stories back to public consciousness. And she drew on her own mixed-race, working class experience to enrich her themes of family and displacement…
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