‘In My Father’s Shade’ Launched in London

The book, ‘In My Father’s Shade’, which looks at the life of Jamaica’s former Prime Minister, Michael Manley through the eyes of his daughter, Rachel, had its London launch at the Jamaican High Commission on October 5.
In describing the book as a portrait of “one man’s enormous heart and his determination to change the world and the story of a woman who found in him the strength and courage to soar”, Rachel Manley admitted that she was obsessed with her father.
“He was my great hero,” she said at the launch, which included a ‘Conversation’ with Professor David Dabydeen, as part of the University of Warwick’s Caribbean Conversation project. The book is published in the United Kingdom by Black Amber Publishers.Miss Manley said the book was painful to write as she started it during the last months of her father’s life. ” I always expressed my emotions in writing.
It was a very painful book to write for many reasons. When people die, you are struggling with the reality of death and dying, and you are forced to face up to your own mortality and it also does something to the family,” she said.High Commissioner, Her Excellency Maxine Roberts described Miss Manley as a good friend and said the book deserved commendation.
Miss Manley, who is a graduate of the University of the West Indies, is the author of ‘Drumblair: Memories of a Jamaican Childhood’, three collections of poetry, and is the editor of the Edna Manley Diaries.
Professor Dabydeen, who praised ‘In My Father’s Shade’, said it was a monument in words to Rachel Manley’s father.
John Mair