Ten of us met to discuss the book. The story is about the Windrush generation who came to the UK in answer to the Government’s call to help the country rebuild after the Second World War. Those who upped sticks and came were promised a warm welcome which sadly didn’t materialise. Instead they faced racism, prejudice, inequality and event violence. The story takes place in Clapham and revolves around Evie, her mother, a group of Windrush arrivals and a baby of mixed race found dead in a pond.
Our views varied from the story being an interesting concept that was easy to read through to it being a story line from East Enders based in the 1950s that was old fashioned and predictable. We felt that the characters lacked depth, the story relied too much on coincidence and was rushed at the end. While the story itself wasn’t memorable we were struck by the reality of the Windrush generation’s experience at the time and the sad thought that things don’t seem to have changed much seventy or so years later, the recent debacle around the Government’s treatment of people whose records they had destroyed being a case in point.
Two of our members weren’t drawn in by the book and only managed to read a bit of it. Overall we didn’t think we would read another book by the author and gave it a marking of 6 out of 10.