Queenie

Queenie is set in present-day London. Although the book is a work of fiction, it incorporates many historical and current cultural events and, like Carty-Williams’s other writing, connects to her own life. Like the author, Queenie is from a Jamaican-British family and lives on the South side of London.

From 1707 to 1962, Jamaica was a British Colony and then a Crown Colony. London has become home to a large population of Jamaicans and Jamaican descendants since World War II, when they immigrated to London in hopes of finding financial success in reconstructing the city postwar. Most of them settled South of the Thames River in places like Brixton (Queenie’s community).

Queenie is a very place-based novel, and Brixton’s history is evident throughout the story. For instance, on page 179, Queenie attends a protest at Windrush Square, which is named after a ship that brought many Jamaicans looking for work to the UK over after the war. Queenie learns that her grandmother was left alone in Jamaica with her firstborn for two years while her grandfather fled to London to try to make a home for their family. As Queenie struggles with her own identity, she notices that Brixton has started to lose its identity too.