Andrea Levy, novelist for the Windrush generation, dies at 62
THE NOVELIST Andrea Levy, whose father’s journey from Jamaica to Britain on the Empire Windrush in 1948 influenced her work, has died aged 62. She had been suffering from cancer.
Her books included Small Island, which won the 2004 Orange Prize for fiction, and The Long Song, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2010.
Levy, who was born in London in 1956, did not begin writing until she was in her mid-30s after completing a creative writing course.
It was Small Island, her fourth novel, about Jamaican immigrants who start a new life in post-war Britain, which made her a big name.
Her publisher Headline said “she had been ill for some time”. Levy’s long-time editor and publisher, Jane Morpeth, said: “Her legacy is unique, and her voice will be heard for generations to come. I miss her.” Headline said Levy’s “novels have perhaps never been more relevant or important in their questioning of identity and belonging”. She was “widely regarded as the first black British author to achieve both critical and mainstream commercial success”. Levy’s father had sailed from Jamaica to England on the Empire Windrush and her mother joined him soon after.
Small Island, which also won the Whitbread prize and the Commonwealth Writers’ prize, was adapted into a BBC drama starring Naomie Harris and Ruth Wilson.
The work, which also dealt with Jamaicans and Londoners in the Second World War, is currently being adapted for the stage by the National Theatre.
Ms Levy was said to be “very involved” in the production, which will debut this spring.
The Long Song, set in the Jamaica of the early 19th century, during the last years of slavery and the period immediately after emancipation, was recently seen as a three-part BBC drama.
It was her last novel and prompted the Washington Post to call Ms Levy “one of the best historical novelists of her generation”.
Her other works include Fruit Of The Lemon, Never Far From Nowhere and Every Light In The House Burnin’.