"They tell you one thing but you are not free." London in 1802 is a dangerous place for black people. Elizabeth d'Aviniere, the mixed race great-niece of the Lord Chief Justice, who had spent her childhood in his home, now fears for her own children's safety and yearns for her mother, an African-born enslaved woman.
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Summary
"They tell you one thing but you are not free." London in 1802 is a dangerous place for black people. Elizabeth d'Aviniere, the mixed race great-niece of the Lord Chief Justice, who had spent her childhood in his home, now fears for her own children's safety and yearns for her mother, an African-born enslaved woman.
Description
This radical and moving historical novel weaves fact with fiction to reveal "the great deception" exercised by the powerful on a mixed race child born in the late 18th century and brought up in the London home of England's Lord Chief Justice.Dido Belle was the daughter of an African-born slave and the sea-faring nephew of Lord Mansfield. She was freed only on Mansfield's death and became Elizabeth D'Aviniere on her marriage. Scott imagines Elizabeth's adult world where she reflects on her disturbed childhood and fears for her own children's safety at risk from slave catchers. Above all, she yearns for her lost mother. Why did she no longer write? Had she, too, been recaptured? The novel builds to a powerful denouement as the events of Elizabeth's past engage with the traumas of her present.
About the Author
Lawrence Scott is a prize-winning novelist and short story writer from Trinidad & Tobago. He was recently inducted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, 2019. He was awarded a Lifetime Literary Award in 2012 by the National Library of Trinidad & Tobago for his significant contribution to the Literature of Trinidad & Tobago. His first novel, Witchbroom (1992) was read as a BBC Book at Bedtime, and republished by Papillote Press (2017). His most recent book, the collection of stories, Leaving by Plane Swimming Back Underwater, 2015, was longlisted for The Edge Hill Short Story Prize 2016, the Grand Prix Litteraire de l'Association des Ecrivains de la Caraibe from the Congres des Ecrivains de la Caraibe, Guadeloupe, 2017 and the Frank O'Connor Short Story Award, 2015. Other novels are Light Falling on Bamboo (2012), Night Calpyso (2004) and Aelred's Sin (1998). He lives in London and Trinidad.
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