In the ten years since it was published, Andrea Levy’s Small Island has been translated into 26 languages and awarded the 2004 Orange Prize for Fiction and 2004 Whitbread Book of the Year Award, as well as being chosen as one of the 50 books which defined the decade by the Guardian.
To celebrate the tenth anniversary of this iconic novel, Tinder Press has published a special edition with a new introduction by writer and journalist, Gary Younge. They offered 50 copies of this special edition to our reading groups and invited them to pose questions to Andrea.
How did you feel the TV mini-series compared to the book? Was it visually what you imagined it would be? Ickenham Library Reading Group
Novels are very different from films. A novel can be complex and multi-layered and can tell its story in its own way and its own time. A film or TV drama has to tell the same story but in a different way, emphasising the visual. So inevitably Small Island on TV had to lose a lot – some characters, storylines, themes and that is always going to be a bit of a shock for the author. But given all that, I thought that the TV drama managed to do a good job. The atmosphere was very true to the way I had imagined it and all the cast did a superb job of bringing the characters to life. And I know so many people really enjoyed it.
Although you were still very young at the time your novel is set in and may not have many memories of the exact time, how much of your own life experiences and memories did you use to write and/or influence your novel Small Island? Forfar Library Afternoon Book Group
Wow, I’m not that old – I was born in 1956! Small Island covers a period from before the Second World War up to the year 1948, so clearly there are none of my own memories in the story. In fact it was the first book I wrote where I had to totally research another time and another place. It is the story of my parent’s generation and I did draw quite a lot on the spoken memories of my mum and my mother-in-law for some of the main characters. I also spoke to men who had been in the RAF during the war. I spent many hours in the British Library, the Imperial War Museum and the RAF museum researching the period. I discovered rich sources like personal accounts of living through the Blitz from Mass Observation. I visited the Post Office archives and the wartime records of Kensington and Chelsea local authority. It was so rewarding to come across even the tiniest snippet of information that I knew would be useful. The whole experience was fascinating for me and I hope that comes across in the novel.
What advice would you give to those wanting to become an author? Ark Academy Staff Book Group
As long as you feel you have something you want to say, I would advise ‘Yes, go for it!’ But at a professional level I know that the publishing industry has changed enormously in the comparatively short time that I have been a novelist. The digital revolution has meant that in many ways it’s more difficult to get published in the traditional way. Publishers are having to adapt quickly to the new ways. But it has also opened up many different forms of getting your work out to a public. And I think that is very exciting.
How do you think your book differs from those with a similar theme, such as The Color Purple and The Help? Chislehurst Library Reading Group
The Colour Purple is a family saga set in the American rural South in the 1930s. The Help is about domestic maids working in Mississippi in the 1960s. Small Island is about the end of Britain’s empire and the migration of Caribbean people to live in post war London. The only thing I can think of that they have in common is that many of their main characters are black, and that living in a majority white society they experience discrimination as a background to their lives. I think it would be a great shame if stories about black people came to be thought of as merely a theme.
Do you think that someone coming to Britain from the Caribbean in 2014 would still face a big culture shock, even though more people travel these days? Words, Wine & Wisdom Reading Group
The shock would not be exactly the same. Times change. Attitudes change – outwardly at least. The British Caribbean population is much bigger than it was in 1948 and British culture is much more varied. But moving to another country is always going to be a shock. And black Britons still struggle to be truly equal and valued members of our society.
Why do you think the book was successful when first written and has remained so after 10 years? Tree Book Group
Obviously, as the author I would like to think its success was at least something to do with it being a good book and an enjoyable read. But given its subject I think that timing had something to do with it also. Small Island was a largely untold story of Britain’s war, the aftermath of empire and the way that this has shaped the Britain that we all live in today. And it’s also a love story. I think that when the book first came out people in Britain were ready to hear that story and to take it to heart as part of our history in a way that, even ten years earlier, they may not have been. In the new tenth anniversary edition there is a great introduction by Gary Younge which talks of the wider political context that the novel attempts to engage with. It’s a novel about something that has had an impact on us all in modern multicultural Britain. Maybe that has helped to make it last.
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