Whole Story Audio Books

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Cambridge is a powerful and haunting novel set in that uneasy time between the abolition of the slave trade and the emancipation of the slaves. It is the story of Emily Cambridge, a young woman sent from England to visit her father's West Indian plantation, and Cambridge, a plantation slave, educated and turned Christian by his first master in England and now struggling to maintain his dignity.

Synopsis

Two worlds, connected by the insult of slavery, are explored in this powerful novel: the Caribbean plantation hierarchy in its every shade of prejudice; and England, at a time when the abolition of slavery was official, but London "bird and beast shops" still sold African children like pets.

It is a shocking and unforgettable account of inhumanity - of a self-pronounced Christian nation resistant to black religious conversion because all people might suddenly recognise that they were equal under God.

About The Author

Caryl Phillips was born in St Kitts and now lives in London and New York. He has written for television, radio, theatre and cinema and is the author of three works of non-fiction and seven novels. Crossing the River was shortlisted for the 1993 Booker Prize and he has won the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, as well as being named the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year 1992 and one of the Best of Young British Writers 1993.

Reviews and Press Quotes

The Independent

“A dazzling act of historical reclamation.”

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