Charlie and Yvonne Bailey-Smith (The Day I Fell Off My Island) discuss the effects on children of immigration from Jamaica to the UK, the effects on parents, and the lack of educational care afforded to and the assumptions made about Black British students. Some podcast apps do not show description links properly unless the listener subscribes to the podcast. If you can't click the links below and don't wish to subscribe, copy and paste the following address into your browser to access the episode's page on my blog: http://wormhole.carnelianvalley.com/podcast/episode-61-yvonne-bailey-smith The Day I Fell Off My Island on the Author Club's Best Novel Award Professor Carolyn Cooper Lisa Allen-Agostini's The Bread The Devil Knead Diane Abbott After we finished recording, Yvonne spoke to me about how people from all across the world, ethicities, places, religions, have read her book and contacted her about it, and how wonderful that has been. Question Index 01:55 [Reading] 11:43 Tell us about Grandma Melba 14:25 Can you tell us about your work as a social worker and psychotherapist? 15:54 You've been writing this book for a very long time? 18:22 Is there anything interesting you can tell us about what was edited out? 19:18 How much of this book is informed by your own story of immigration to England? 22:01 Did it take you a while to get used to living in Britain; how similar are yours and Erna's experiences? 24:47 Can you talk about your choices to write half of the novel's dialogue - the half set in Jamaica - in Jamaican patois? 28:58 You said about Carolyn Cooper checking through the book the night beforehand, was anything able to be done about the errors? 31:16 Can you tell us about Violet - what went into creating her, and so on? 36:21 Erna is not given advice about university until she asks about it and she says this happened to other black school mates. Was this something that happened a lot then and further in the future? 40:11 Tell us all about the title! 41:31 Is there anything you can tell us about the sequel? Purchase Links The Day I Fell Off My Island: Amazon UK Amazon US Amazon Canada Waterstones Hive Barnes & Noble IndieBound Indigo Chapters I am an IndieBound affiliate and earn a small commission on qualifying purchases. Photograph used with the permission of Yvonne's publicist. Credit: Elena Heatherwick.