Customer Reviews
Great Book - By: R. Litchfield, 21 Jan 2010 
Purchased for my wife, who missed the TV serialisation. She has found it absorbing as she comes from the Jamaica & lives in the UK.
Recommend it to anyone in similar situation though as a general read it has good pace & good characterisation.
Not disappointed - By: Mrs. Helen Hare, 19 Jan 2010 This was a Christmas present to myself after watching the BBC adaptation.The book was even better & magical.Such a portrayal of 50's Britain & racial tension.
Book reveiw - By: Mr. John G. Crossman, 19 Jan 2010 
Excellent story on which a recent TV drama was based. The book, however, as to be expected, is a much longer story than the TV version & a very enjoyable read. I should explain that it was bought for, & read by, my wife whose opinion this is.
book review - By: A. Morgan, 10 Jan 2010 
If you watched the adaptation of this book on the BBC then there is absolutley no need to read it.
A thoroughly enjoyable novel - both moving and challenging. - By: Ms. A. Martin, 10 Jan 2010 It is not without good reason that Andrea Levy's `Smalll Island' won the Whitbread book of the year in 2004. The novel, set in 1948 explores the contrasting lives of the 4 main characters with alternating chapters, which flit between London & Jamaica in past & present times. By using rich & powerful imagery, Levy is able to transport the reader from warm, beautiful Jamaica, to the post-war, political & somewhat gloomy streets of London.
As we watch the story take shape, we follow Hortense & Gilbert as they emigrate from their native Jamaica to London, where they eventuallly meet Queenie Bligh & her husband Bernard. Levy explores the very different worlds the characters inhabit, & by doing so, alllows the reader to gain an understanding of the beliefs & perceptions the people of 1940's British Colonial Jamaica held about England. We hear the expectations of the somewhat naïve Hortense as she fantasises about her future life in England in `her fine big house with a bell at the front door.' However, upon Hortense's arrival, she realises that the London she is living in is far from the `golden London' she had anticipated & dreamed of.
`Smalll Island' explores a critical point of change in England's past, as we follow 4 wildly different characters as their lives become entwined in ways that would have been unimaginable in pre-World War II Britain. In doing so, Levy explores the social & political issues of prejudice, racism, love & the role of women in 1940's England. The result, is a thoroughy enjoyable read, which is both moving & challlenging.
