A Night in with Diana McCaulay
How do we reconcile the land we claim with the history it holds?
Join Diana McCaulay, a distinguished member of Jamaica's literary landscape, renowned for her environmental activism and powerful storytelling. Her journey spans five acclaimed novels and culminates in the Gold Musgrave Medal for lifetime achievement in arts and science. McCaulay's craft has twice captured the Commonwealth Short Story Prize for the Caribbean region (2012, 2022), marking her as a master of her form. Now, she invites us into her most evocative work yet, the poetic and profound A House for Miss Pauline.
From educating herself through stolen books to becoming one of the most successful ganja farmers in the area and raising a family in a house she built herself, Pauline Sinclair has lived a life on her own terms in Mason Hall, a rural Jamaican village.
But when the stones of her home begin to rattle and call out to her in the quiet of the night, Pauline realises she will not live to see her 100th birthday. The whispering walls threaten to topple the foundations of her security and exhume Pauline’s many buried secrets, including the mysterious disappearance of the man who came to claim the very land on which she built her home, stone by stone, from the ruins of a plantation.
Compelled to make peace before she dies, Pauline decides to leave the only home she has ever known on a final, desperate mission to make amends. But this trip will uncover truths she could never have imagined.
As a cornerstone voice in contemporary Caribbean literature, Diana will examine the tangled roots of identity and ownership that shape modern Jamaica. She will discuss essential questions: What right do we have to the ground beneath our feet? How do generations of stories and struggle define a people? And what do all of these mean for those living today?
Seize the chance to unearth with Diana the powerful connections between land, legacy, and the stories we tell.
“What begins as one woman’s symphony of magic and loss soon unravels, stone by stone, secret by secret until we’re left with nothing less than the brutal, turbulent, wild, and haunted history of Jamaica itself. Miss Pauline is the dazzling heroine of our times, a cypher for uncovering the secrets her world keeps hidden even as she hides her own. The centre cannot hold, things fall apart, the past is uprooted, the present holds on by thread, and in the midst of it all is Miss Pauline, strong, conflicted, driven, and remarkable.” Marlon James, Booker Prize-Winning Author of A Brief History of Seven Killings
The ‘stream and book’ package includes a unique ticket for the stream, and a copy of A House for Miss Pauline (RRP £20) deliverable to any UK or international address.
The event will initially be broadcast on 27 February at 6.30pm UK time. It will be available to view up to two weeks after the event has ended and can be accessed Worldwide. If you live in a time zone that does not suit the initial broadcast time you can watch it at any point after the initial showing for two weeks.
If you have any questions, please email [email protected]