The Essay: Caribbean Voices

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The Essay: Caribbean Voices: Paul Mendez on Andrew Salkey

Paul Mendez on Andrew Salkey

Caribbean Voices

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, Caribbean Voices, Paul Mendez on Andrew Salkey

Reimagining the man at the centre of the black literary scene in the mid-20th century

The author of Rainbow Milk knew little about Salkey before seeing a striking image of man at the centre a black literary scene. Here Paul Mendez draws on that queer picture.

Arriving in Britain as part of the Windrush Generation, Andrew Salkey made vital contributions to the BBC's Caribbean Voices programme as a presenter, writer and reader of others work. But author of Rainbow Milk, Paul Mendez, knew little about him before coming across a striking image of man at the centre of the mid-20th century's black literary scene. Here he draws on that picture, following Salkey's journey from reading the work of other authors on air, to penning his own forgotten queer classic, Escape to an Autumn.

75 years ago, the revolutionary Caribbean Voices strand was established on the BBC's Overseas Service by trailblazing Jamaican broadcaster Una Marson. Every week for over a decade, it gave exposure on radio to emerging writers from the region such as Sam Selvon, Derek Walcott and VS Naipaul - many for the first time. Delving into the BBC's Written Archives, five writers go in search of five important figures who contributed to the programme throughout the 1940s and 50s, each of whom changed the literary landscape in a different way. The result is part archival treasure hunt, part cultural history and part personal reflection on the people behind a landmark institution.

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