Overview
In this partly autobiographical novel, Neville Dawes tells the story of Ramsay Tull, who is witness to the beginning of a new post–World War II Jamaica. Black racial discontents and the desire for national independence are threatening the old colonial order, but for Ramsay the first stage of his growth comes with the chance to study at Oxford University, where he becomes immersed in European literary culture and Marxism. On his return to Jamaica, Ramsay becomes actively involved in radical nationalist politics and begins his second journey, away from his middle-class origins and back to a true appreciation of the Jamaican people. Re-released after forty years, this literary exploration of Jamaican racial politics is still fresh and vital, as is its sensuous knowledge of the Jamaican landscape and its sharp ear for the language of the people.