The forthcoming e book, Alexis Keir’s Windward Household, will probably be printed by Hachette UK in February 2023.
Description: ‘It took 20 years for me to go in the hunt for the components of myself I had left behind within the Caribbean. What ghosts have been ready for me there? There was a thick, black journal in my flat, filled with letters, postcards, handwritten notes, and diary entries. For the primary time in years, I opened it.’
Twenty years after dwelling there as a toddler, Alexis Keir returns to the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent. He’s eager to uncover misplaced reminiscences and rediscover previous connections. However he additionally carries with him the childhood scars of being separated from his dad and mom and put into uncaring arms.
Impressed by the embrace of his family within the Caribbean, Alexis begins to unravel the tales of others who left Saint Vincent, looking via diary pages and newspaper articles, transport and hospital information and pale images. He uncovers tales of exploitation, endeavour and bravado of those that needed to discover a residence distant from the place they have been born.
A baby born with vitiligo, torn from his mom’s arms to be exhibited as a showground attraction in England; a girl who, within the century earlier than the Windrush technology, turned one of many earliest Black nurses to be recorded as working in a London hospital; a younger boy who turned a footman in a Yorkshire stately residence. And Alexis’s mom, a pupil nurse who arrives in Sixties London, prepared to start out a brand new life in a chilly, gray nation – and the person from her island whom she falls in love with.
From the Caribbean to England, North America and New Zealand, from windswept islands to the wet streets of London, and spanning generations of travellers from the nineteenth century to the current, Windward Household takes you contained in the beating coronary heart of a Black British household, separated by 1000’s of miles however united by love, loss and belonging.
Alexis Keir grew up in Luton, a city with a powerful presence and historical past of migrant communities. He spent a 12 months within the Caribbean as a toddler and returns there often. His experiences dwelling in New Zealand, together with encounters with Māori tradition and communities, impressed him to discover the tales of his circle of relatives extra deeply. His non-fiction essay I Lands, about returning to the Caribbean, was printed by The Selkie. From A Distance was recorded for the podcast We’ve Chosen Right here, and “My Girlfriend Cuts My Hair” was printed in The Caribbean Author. In 2019 he was chosen as a participant for the London Writers Award Programme run by Unfold The Phrase, he is likely one of the 2021 cohort of the London Library Rising Writers Programme, and in the identical 12 months he was shortlisted for The Cecile de Jongh Literary Prize.
Bio from https://thread-books.com/authors/alexis-keir-331/
For extra e book info, see https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/alexis-keir/windward-family/9781909770713/