Peepal Tree Press and St Mary’s University College, in collaboration with the High Commission for Grenada proudly present
An exclusive book launch of The Governor’s Story,
THE AUTHORISED BIOGRAPHY OF DAME HILDA BYNOE
by Merle Collins
An historic celebration of the Commonwealth’s first woman Governor
Monday September 30th 6:30 – 8:30
in the Waldegrave Drawing Room
St Mary’s University College, Waldegrave Road, Strawberry Hill,
Twickenham TW1 4SX
The Governor’s Story is a richly contextualised and reflective biography of an important Caribbean woman. Dr Hilda Bynoe was appointed as Governor of Grenada in 1968, as one of the very first local Governors in the Caribbean and the first woman, and black woman, to be appointed a governor anywhere in the Commonwealth. All previous Governors had been white, male and British.
Merle Collins is uniquely equipped to write this biography. As a black woman informed about the political events in 1970s Grenada, a novelist and academic, she is able to bring an effective blend of local knowledge, empathetic identification, narrative skills and analytical questioning to her task.
Antionia MacDonald writes: “The Governor’s Story has a distinctive oral quality; it is easy to read because it evokes the storyteller charming us with tales of a Grenadian past, and there is always the sense of the reader being part of a conversation between Collins and Bynoe. Dame Hilda’s narrative operates alongside Collins’ commentary and scholarly analysis as these two women’s voices blend together to tell an important Grenadian story. At the same time, the reality of intra-island migration has made The Governor’s Story also the story of interconnectedness between Grenada and neighbouring Caribbean islands, especially Trinidad. Federation is presented as a lived experience, a social reality that exists outside of national affiliations and political machinations. Globalisation is presented as an ongoing reality born out of the crisscrossing movement of Caribbean people in search of employment and education. Drs Merle Collins and Hilda Bynoe remind us that, regardless of the Caribbean island of our birth, we are indeed West Indians as T. A. Marryshow so passionately claimed almost a hundred years ago.”
RSVP
Online www.bynoebooklaunch.eventbrite.co.uk
Email [email protected]
Telephone 0113 2451703
