Character Name Quote Page No.

I went to Africa when it came to Wembley

1/P
Q
Q, TEACHER Africa was a country 1/P
The inside girls who helped mother with the pies… the outside girls
who fed the pigs and poultry 1/P
Q
Q The Great War was not long over but nearly forgotten. 2/P
A model engine or soldiers
2/P
Q BROTHERS
The Empire in little. A sheep being sheared in New Zealand…Hong Kong
smelt of drains, and India was full of women brightly dressed 4/P
Q
Q MOTHER Dots meant they were ill-in case they were contagious. 5/P
Skin as black as the ink
5/P
Q
Q GRAHAM They are not civilised. They only understand drums. 5/P
Carved from melting chocolate… a monkey man sweating a sweat of
mothballs… the droplets of sweat on his forehead glistened and shone 6/P
like jewels
Q
His lips were brown, not pink like they should be, and they bulged with
air like bicycle tyres … the inside of his mouth was pink. 6/P
Q
He could have swallowed me up, this big nigger man. But instead he
said, in clear English, ‘Perhaps we could shake hands instead?’ 6/P
Q
Q It was warm and slightly sweaty like anyone else’s. 6/P
Chief or prince … have learned to be civilised – taught English by the
white man, missionaries probably. 7/P
Q FATHER
We went up and up into the heavens… you’ve got the whole world at
your feet, lass. 7/P
Q FATHER
(Celia) voice became high-class
11,1
C
-well as far as her round flat nose could-
11,1
H
Feel the sun’s heat on my face gradually change from roasting to
caressing 11,1
H
C- BiH Gouse with a bell. I will ring the bell in this house.
11-12,1
H
H- But when I pressed this doorbell I did not hear a ring. No ding-a-ling,
ding-a-ling. 11-12,1
H
Shabby in a grand sort of way. The glass stained… as a church would
have. 11-12,2
H
What do you think of that, Celia Langley?
12,1
H CELIA
Devilish deeds (of) Mr. Hitler’s bombs
15,1
H
H SUGAR Have you seen Sugar? She’s one of you. 16,1
H H- perchance, 16,1
 I can’t take you all the way on me trolley, love … white man could not
have thought me so stupid 17,1
H MAN
H White me who worked were made to work because they were fools. 20,1
A broken chair that rested one uneven leg on the Holy Bible.
21,1
G AND H
/2
Find quotes
37/2

My father was a man of class… newspapers of America, Canada and

England. 38/2
H
I was born … out of wedlock.
38/2
H
My complexion was light as his; the colour of warm honey… with such
a countenance there was a chance for a golden life for I 38/2
H
He was not the law but he was authority

86/6

H AND FATHER
A man of character, a man of Intelligence, noble in a way that made
him a legend 42/2
H LOVELL
Cha!... di… nuh
42/2
H MISS JEWEL
Her colossal leather worn hands … her breasts wobbled … her legs
bowed. 43/2
H
Miss Hortense/mee sprigadee
41/2
H MISS JEWEL
Principle …We must all have principle …scared I would be entranced by
the lines… danced with the wonder of the scriptures 43/2
M PHILLIP
H MISS JEWEL De Lawd born ah Hengland?... Of course, 43/2
H MISS JEWEL She looked to me for all her knowledge of England. 43/2
I wandered lonely as a cloud/ that floats on high o’er vales and hills, /
when all at once I saw a crowd, / a host of golden daffodils. 43/2
H MISS JEWEL
Den me float over de ill…see Miss Hortense look upon de daffodil dem.
43/2
H MISS JEWEL
Mr Ryder- Someone must help these poor negro children. Education is
all they have… took only the wealthiest, fairest and highest-class
children from the district.
H RYDER
H RYDER Mr Ryder was spreading more than just his love for learning. 57/3
H I sat quiet as a vigil. 66/4
She placed me not only in the shower but firmly under her wing.
68/4
H CELIA
Nappy-headed, runny-nosed, foul smelling ragamuffins. Sixty black
faces… wealthy, fair skinned, high class children 70/4
H
H about C-I refused to notice the trail of a tear…’They will be leaving
for England soon, we must wave them goodbye.’ 71/4
H CELIA
I thought I had spoken these words only in my head
72/4
H
 I could understand why it was of the greatest importance to her that
slavery should not return. Her skin was so dark. But mine was not of
that hue – it was the colour of warm honey. No one would think t 72/4
enchain someone as I… Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.
H CELIA
Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.
72/4
H
Celia’s eyes were tight shut… her lips mumbling ‘oh, no’, and a fresh
tear 74/4
H CELIA
H about Evelyn -Oblivious to the spectacle … she stood fanninH Gerself
as haughty as nobility…Yet there was no spirit in her eyes: they
remained as expressionless and unengaged as the simulated gaze of a 80/4
doll.
H EVELYN
Miss Morgan- no matter what their colour, no matter what their creed,
men who are fighting to protect the people of Great Britain… are 82/5
gallant heroes- be they dead or alive.
MORGAN
A chair-tumbling through the air towards me.
83/5
H
His smile then became a chuckle at his own joke.
83/5
G
I shooed his hand away as he reached to touch my leg. The words did
not come out with the force I required of them 86/6
G
Light skinned girls in pristine uniforms… fountain of an English
curriculum 87/6
H
Small boys lined up to place gifts before her every morning. Little girls
jostled and pushed 87/6
H
H Wretched black faces 87/6
Gilbert Joseph took pleasure at my presence for no other reason than
his big ideas received a larger audience 93/6
G
House of Parliament in London… fairy-tale castle… dragons will breathe
fire on you soon. 95/6
G
But what about your mother Celia? Am I to look after her too? The
playful light in her eyes suddenly extinguished, she stood as still as a 111/9
stone.
H
The National Health Service-its pulling them in… they were all cross-
eyed and goofy before they got here.
CYRIL TODD
Q- backsides as big as buses.
Q
Mr. Todd- Another darkie. ... outrage, shock, fear, even – nostrils
flaring, mouth trying to smile but only managing a sneer. 112/9
CYRIL TODD
Moaned about the Jews even after we knew what the poor beggars
had been through. They were all right in their own country. 112/9
Q
They would turn the area into a jungle.
112/9
CYRIL TODD
Q I did my patriotic duty- got myself looking as good as I could. 112/9
Woman in a house alone with coloureds?...knew nothing of manners.
Washed in oil and smelt foul of it…. 112/9
Q
CYRIL TODD Worthless people… Darkies bring down a neighbourhood. 118/9
 Unfortunate incident…. My sister was made to step off the pavement…
darkies black as filth with backsides as big as buses. 119/10
CYRIL TODD
Sucking on his teeth so fierce I feared he might swallow them.
125/11
HG
My mirror spoke to me-I looked like a god
126/11
G
How the English built empires when their armies marched on nothing
but mush should be one of the wonders of the world /11
G
America is Paradise. A bath…that rivalled the Caribbean Sea in my
affection. /11
G
Yes, sir – umm umm. This momentarily took the officer by surprise, his
back stiffening before carrying on. /11
G
Best welcome Uncle Sam could give to the negros of an ally. You will
not be treated as negroes! /11
G
Anthropoid … Hitler and his friends … resembling a human but
primitive, like an ape /11
G
G He met Jesus on the battlefield. /11
When him colour no suit them… you wanna go licky-licky to them… I
was ready to fight this master race theory. /11
G
G (West Indians from American view had) Superior black skin. /11
They had a name for it-no, not master race theory - Jim Crow!
/11
G
G The word Paradise had long since stopped popping from my lips.
CORPORAL BAXTER No white women there will consort with the likes of you.
(Sucking teeth) an act of insubordination… treaded accordingly…
(Jamaican) see his face contort with the agony of denied self-
expression.
G
The entire village had come out to play dog with gecko… under this
scrutiny we darkies moved with the awkwardness of thieves caught in
a sunbeam.
G
Ta, ducks,… ya… bloddy hell..they speak it just like us, only funnier. v/s.
G Certainly, madam, but please…
‘Eyebrows jumped’ like ‘caterpillars in a polka’. Humph. Your country?
He asked without a need of an answer.
G
Mother... Refined, mannerly and cultured v/s. (Pejorative) filthy
tramp… twisted-crooked weary woman. Stinking cantankerous hag.

G
.. like the Lord she takes care of you from afar…v/s. lordly eyes “who
G the bloody hell are you?”
Oi, darkie,show us yer tail

G
 How come England did not know me?

G
Savages, jungles, swinging through the trees

G
G Fucking Limeys, these niggers are more trouble than they’re worth
Coloured, black, nigger… (not one aspersion caused Gilbert as much)
G outrage as the word ‘soldier’
I am loyal to my flag. But you could never find no self-respecting white
man going into a battle with a nigger. No, not master race theory – Jim
Crow!
G
Politeness had always been my policy. It makes the good people of
England revise what they think of you. ... Oh yes Mummy, it speaks,
and when it speaks it usually speaks with courtesy.
G
G Devil (darkies)
G All niggers- she stopped All coloureds up the back rows
Q- Her fierce finger wagging… shut up with your nigger, I prefer them
Q to you any day
Q Queenie Bligh believed herself to be safeguarding me
Ruddy loud-mouth Yanks

If you build a bonfire from the dirtiest tinder, is it the stray sparks you
blame when the flames start to lick? /17
G
Arthur Bligh had become another casualty of war – tell me, someone …
AG which war?
QH Gone with the wind
If Hortense had money to buy me then… my price was not too dear.
G
Luck England-style
G
H CELIA (Celia would be) sipping fruit punch and fanninH Gerself in sunlight.
Soft brother Harry… but he were hungry queenie, he were hungry
248/24
Q
After that I became a vegetarian… ‘Our meat’s not good enough for
Queenie B’ Father roared 248/25
Q
Mouth was too quick to stretch into a smile…’you’ll never get into
polite society like that’ 248/26
Q
Q-My mouth was too weak, it needed discipline.
248/27
Q
Q I had been walking all wrong since I was a baby. 267/26
Floating on feet that never felt the ground v/s. “Is that all courting is?”
“awkward” 267/27
Q
B B-These Jews are more trouble than they’re worth. 267/28
(family moving in on the street) unreadable as a corpse… mites… girl,
carried a gas mask box, a boy, a little stuffed toy…trousers too big for 278/27
him… it lay there on the road, got run-over by a car.
Q
I was protecting my husband against those big bad incendiaries… I felt
so peaceful being embraced by him and gently whispering ‘there,
there, Bernard, there, there’
Q
Q (That’s how they saw them) -population, not people.
A mass whose desperation…drained the classrooms of all colour…
white potties… glinted like diamonds.
Q
QB (I just need to know you’re alive) Oh, yes, very much so.

All we had to offer anyone was a blinking cup of tea.

Q
There’s thousands of people having much more of a war than you are,
QB
Plumped almost as proud… shoulders got broader… hands more
manly… almost jealous
Q
AQ Arthur: a human apostrophe… Arthur was a magician.
Without Bernard fussing about him, pulling, coaxing, he began to
unflur as sure as a flower that finally feels the sun when the tree is
gone.
AQB
I was lost in Africa again… smile a grin so broad and white… projected a
QM film on it.
completely forgot the name of the brown stuff we were always
QM drinking
Heat… coming from the gas ring or from him
QM
M-Perchance

M SIMILAR TO H
hummingbird…sample the nectar of English flowers
M
I would die if anythinH Gappened to you…deep like Bernard’s was posh
as the BBC… opened the covers for him to get into bed with me.
AQ
Soon I would believe there was indeed something wrong with me

G
G Luck England-style
When are you going back to the jungle…? A coon. The jungle… But I
G just get here, man, and I not fucked your wife yet.
No wife of mine will be on her knees in this country… no one will watch
HG us weep in this country
I became hungry for the good in people
G
Not everything the English do is good

HG
She tell me loud for all to hear ‘this is bread’
QH
 Children who should have been in school… ‘Baksheesh, Baksheesh’…
B father who was trying to sell his girl to a Tommy
Shrug it off as best as I could…sweet, sickly, spicy scents.
B
B Carnival coloured natives
She would have liked to live with a hero
QB
Foreign themselves. Black. Indian.
B
Unintelligent slum dweller with nothing worth fighting for except the
fanatical belief that his emperor is God.

B
Johnny- that voice trembled in my hands. Perfect English.
B
I was a coward… quivering like a girl. Could Queenie be proud of that?
B
Mechanics, teachers and clerks… wondering what Britain was being
B built without us
Not even a begging child was left on the road… this was an eerie
B spectacle for India
B After two years in India, they still all looked the same to me. (H&M)
Ragged bunch of illiterates wanting to run their own country… British
bulldog understands… nothing worse than foreigners invading your
land.
BA
Pop
B
Father died fighting for his country… better words for a son to cherish?

B
White feather… played with it… mother spat… he’s done his bit… but
AB he was never my pa again
Pop, you’re just a laughing stock… Maxi was the only one who could
B stomach you.
Sleek as marble/breasts dangling like a cow’s udder…she cried out…
B shut up
Ejaculation was a blessed release… defiling someone’s daughter… this
war hadn’t made me a hero. It had brought me down to my knees.
B
Responsible position…’married man’ An Englishman…’ But I felt like a
B beast
Johnny… hand no bigger than a monkey’s…wretched whore
B
B Not… with hundreds of others
That’s what war had done to me… made death a reasonable thing.

B
Blinking place yawned in my face every morning…I thought he’d take it
QB hot like a man…but he slurped
Bold even, bouncing… thought I might start a rabbit farm
B
 Jap…smiling at me. Friendly…hello like she’s talking to a neighbour.
B Hello as if shed known him all her life. Hello, come in
Most exemplary English in the known world.

H BBC
H Her comely smile belied the rudeness of her tone.
She laughed… the sky opened on a sharp beam of sunlight.

G
H- I have found this a very cold country.
H
A friend? With the likes of you? Excitable, these darkies
GQ
GB That bit taller, you see
QBH Your husband will be locked from this home… Good
Elwood was right… warm in Jamaica… bloody and barefoot

GE
I looked like a suspect. What crime? Oh, any will do. There are some
G words that once spoken will split the world in two.
I called his name… it made me feel safe.
Q
I lost them all in a hurricane (family)
M
In Herefordshire, Hertfordshire and Hampshire hurricanes hardly ever
QM happen… have you ever felt the force of a hurricane
QM I was a piece of luck. No more, no less.
Gilbert, come, you scared of a little hard work. I can help you…
HG beautiful woman commanded nothing but the best.
Cold foot… not a man in the world would refuse… ding-a-ling, ding-a-
HG ling
B War… threads of that fraying cloth were still in tangle
I longed for something to stir me… to opinion. Anger, hurt, disapproval.
No idea what to feel… Actually, he was a dear little thing.
B
I’m sorry, I haven’t been a better husband to you.
B
He was wanting a new start. What else was the victory for?

QB
Bernard had no right to be so sensible. so just. So, caring. He’d fund
them but he had no business to try to use them now to persuade.
QB
Q BABY They’d want Michael to go back up to the back of the picture house.
Exploding, Get your filthy black hands off my wife!
BGQ
It makes you white. That is all, man. White. No better, no worse than
BG me-just white.
 Gilbert Joseph, my husband, was a man of class, a man of character, a
man of intelligence. Noble in a way that would someday make him a
legend.
HG
I’m sorry… but I just can’t understand a single word that you’re saying.
BG
Tears that dripped, one at a time, from her eye, over his lips and onto
his tongue.

Q BABY
Shirt outside his trousers…panting like a dog…adjusted my hat…
HG straightened my coat against the WIND.
·        “’I’m’ sure .” –
there’s a lot I could teach you.” –
Queenie to , Hortense, demonstratinH Ger patronising
QH attitude towards
. black people.
·        “monkey man” “bicycle tyres” “jewels” “chocolate” – similes used
in Queenie’s first meeting with an African man. Shows she’s been
raised in a racist environment and doesn’t have the vocabulary to
describe him, but isn’t completely negative.
Q
·        “Is that all courting is?” “awkward” sex life – Quennie and
Bernard’s unhappy relationship.
Q
·        “untroubled by the sound of their rising laughter” – Hortense’s
greatest strength: her dignity and determination to carry on regardless
of what others think.
H
·        “the bell was not operational” – Hortense’s unusual speech
H pattern.
·        “” –
legend”( – Hortense on her father (whom she
admired for) his (light skin) then later on Gilbert (whom
she admired
- ), for his anti-racist speech to Bernard),
H LOVELL showinH Gow her. views changed throughout the book.
·        “laughter is part of my war effort” – Gilbert’s lovable humour ❤
G
·        “I had, no thought of courtship, my only need was
GC her .” – adoration.
, ” – Gilbert on Celia, showinH Gow he used
her.
·        “shrivel in the face of her scorn” – Gilbert being intimidated by
Hortense
HG
·        “the war had been fought so people might live amongst their own
kind” – Bernard
B
·        “the defeat of hatred is the purpose of war” – Gilbert
G
·        Bernard is proud to “represent decency” when fighting for the
B British Empire.
·        War “put a rod in the back and spring in the step of this middle-
aged bank clerk who’d thought his life was set” for Bernard – shows
how war brought some positives as well as negatives.
B
·        Arthur “was never my pa again” after fighting in WW1
AB
·        “well loved and respected” – Michael
M
 ·        “I was a piece of luck – no more, no less” – Queenie was taken
Q advantage of by Michael
·        Single women “can’t travel alone” – shows the oppression of
women at this time and one of the challenges Hortense has to
overcome.
H
·        “filthy black hands” – Bernard’s racism
B
·        “I haven’t got the guts” to raise a biracial child – Queenie’s
Q BABY disappointing end.
·        “These darkies bring down a neighbourhood” – Mr Todd. Shows
CYRIL TODD the racist attitude of most Brits at this time.
·        “He’s just come back from fighting a war and now this country no
longer feels like his own.” – Mrs Smith on Mr Smith, but could also be
applied to Bernard.
B
·        Gilbert can recite all the major canals of England, but “England did
not know me” – shows the unequal relationship between Britain and
the countries of their empire.
G
·        “coloured servicemen were fighting this war on another front” –
demonstrates a major conflict of this book, beyond the external
conflict of WW2 – the internal conflict going on inside white people’s
heads, between their traditional racism and the new acceptance they
must adopt.
G
·        American GIs find racism “sport” and black Americans accept “it’s
G the way of things”
·        Hortense thinks Gilbert coming to her job interview would “darken
HG up the place” – shows Hortense’s racism.
·        “what a forlorn desire to seek indifference” Gilbert finds England
a “thankless place” until a small act of kindness offers “salvation” to
him – shows the dire situation of immigrants in Britain.
G
·        “opportunity ripened in England as abundant as fruit on Jamaican
trees” – shows the perception of Britain by people from subject
colonies, and how desperately they wanted to go to the “Mother
Country”
G
·        Queenie initially finds war “exciting” but later says “I had had
enough of war. Come on, let’s all just get back to being bored.” –
shows how the negatives of war outweigh any positives it brings.
Q
·        Queenie wants to help war refugees because “they’re people” but
Bernard doesn’t approve because “they’re not our sort.” – shows her
acceptance and his prejudice.
QB
·        “You’ll find I’m not like most. It doesn’t worry me to be seen out
Q with darkies.” –  Queenie takes pride in her accepting attitude.
HG ·        Hortense sees her marriage with Gilbert as “a business deal”
G ·        “I am not too proud to tell you I sobbed like a boy lost” – Gilbert’s transparency with the
·        “She would have liked to live with a hero.” – Bernard’s
QB disappointment in himself.
Character Name

AB

AB
AG

AQ
AQ

AQB

B
B

B
B

B
B

B
B
B

B
B

B
B

BA

BG

BG

BGQ
C
CORPORAL BAXTER

CYRIL TODD

CYRIL TODD

CYRIL TODD
CYRIL TODD
CYRIL TODD

CYRIL TODD

G
G

G
G

G
G

G
G

G
G

G
G

G
G
G

G
G

G AND H
GB

GC

GE

GQ
H
H

H
H

H
H

H
H

H
H

H
H

H
H
H

H
H
H

H AND FATHER
H BBC

H CELIA

H CELIA

H CELIA

H CELIA

H CELIA

H CELIA

H EVELYN

HG
HG

HG

HG

HG

HG
HG

HG

HG
HG

H LOVELL

H LOVELL

H MAN

H MISS JEWEL

H MISS JEWEL

H MISS JEWEL

H MISS JEWEL
H MISS JEWEL

H MISS JEWEL

H RYDER

H RYDER

H SUGAR

M PHILLIP

M SIMILAR TO H
MORGAN

Q
Q

Q
Q

Q
Q
Q

Q
Q

Q
Q

Q
Q

Q
Q

QB

QB

QB

QB

QB

QB

QB

QB

QBH

Q BABY

Q BABY

Q BABY
 Q BROTHERS

Q FATHER

Q FATHER

Q GRAHAM

QH

QH

QH

QM

QM

QM

QM

QM

Q MOTHER

Q, TEACHER

Gilbert’s transparency with the reader, increasing his likeability.

Quote

White feather… played with it… mother spat… he’s done his bit…
but he was never my pa again
·        Arthur “was never my pa again” after fighting in WW1
Arthur Bligh had become another casualty of war – tell me,
someone … which war?
Arthur: a human apostrophe… Arthur was a magician.
I would die if anythinH Gappened to you…deep like Bernard’s was
posh as the BBC… opened the covers for him to get into bed with
me.
Without Bernard fussing about him, pulling, coaxing, he began to
unflur as sure as a flower that finally feels the sun when the tree is
gone.
B-These Jews are more trouble than they’re worth.
Children who should have been in school… ‘Baksheesh,
Baksheesh’… father who was trying to sell his girl to a Tommy
Shrug it off as best as I could…sweet, sickly, spicy scents.
Carnival coloured natives

Foreign themselves. Black. Indian.

Unintelligent slum dweller with nothing worth fighting for except

the fanatical belief that his emperor is God.
Johnny- that voice trembled in my hands. Perfect English.
I was a coward… quivering like a girl. Could Queenie be proud of
that?
Mechanics, teachers and clerks… wondering what Britain was being
built without us
Not even a begging child was left on the road… this was an eerie
spectacle for India
After two years in India, they still all looked the same to me. (H&M)

Pop

Father died fighting for his country… better words for a son to
cherish?
Pop, you’re just a laughing stock… Maxi was the only one who could
stomach you.
Sleek as marble/breasts dangling like a cow’s udder…she cried out…
shut up
Ejaculation was a blessed release… defiling someone’s daughter…
this war hadn’t made me a hero. It had brought me down to my
knees.
Responsible position…’married man’ An Englishman…’ But I felt like
a beast
Johnny… hand no bigger than a monkey’s…wretched whore
Not… with hundreds of others
That’s what war had done to me… made death a reasonable thing.

Bold even, bouncing… thought I might start a rabbit farm

Jap…smiling at me. Friendly…hello like she’s talking to a neighbour.
Hello as if shed known him all her life. Hello, come in
War… threads of that fraying cloth were still in tangle
I longed for something to stir me… to opinion. Anger, hurt,
disapproval. No idea what to feel… Actually, he was a dear little
thing.
I’m sorry, I haven’t been a better husband to you.

·        “the war had been fought so people might live amongst their
own kind” – Bernard
·        Bernard is proud to “represent decency” when fighting for the
British Empire.
·        War “put a rod in the back and spring in the step of this
middle-aged bank clerk who’d thought his life was set” for Bernard
– shows how war brought some positives as well as negatives.

·        “filthy black hands” – Bernard’s racism

·        “He’s just come back from fighting a war and now this country
no longer feels like his own.” – Mrs Smith on Mr Smith, but could
also be applied to Bernard.
Ragged bunch of illiterates wanting to run their own country…
British bulldog understands… nothing worse than foreigners
invading your land.
It makes you white. That is all, man. White. No better, no worse
than me-just white.
I’m sorry… but I just can’t understand a single word that you’re
saying.
Exploding, Get your filthy black hands off my wife!
(Celia) voice became high-class
No white women there will consort with the likes of you.

The National Health Service-its pulling them in… they were all cross-
eyed and goofy before they got here.
Mr. Todd- Another darkie. ... outrage, shock, fear, even – nostrils
flaring, mouth trying to smile but only managing a sneer.

They would turn the area into a jungle.

Worthless people… Darkies bring down a neighbourhood.
Unfortunate incident…. My sister was made to step off the
pavement… darkies black as filth with backsides as big as buses.
·        “These darkies bring down a neighbourhood” – Mr Todd.
Shows the racist attitude of most Brits at this time.
His smile then became a chuckle at his own joke.

I shooed his hand away as he reached to touch my leg. The words

did not come out with the force I required of them
Gilbert Joseph took pleasure at my presence for no other reason
than his big ideas received a larger audience

House of Parliament in London… fairy-tale castle… dragons will

breathe fire on you soon.
My mirror spoke to me-I looked like a god

How the English built empires when their armies marched on

nothing but mush should be one of the wonders of the world

America is Paradise. A bath…that rivalled the Caribbean Sea in my

affection.

Yes, sir – umm umm. This momentarily took the officer by surprise,
his back stiffening before carrying on.
Best welcome Uncle Sam could give to the negros of an ally. You
will not be treated as negroes!
Anthropoid … Hitler and his friends … resembling a human but
primitive, like an ape
He met Jesus on the battlefield.

When him colour no suit them… you wanna go licky-licky to them…

I was ready to fight this master race theory.
(West Indians from American view had) Superior black skin.
They had a name for it-no, not master race theory - Jim Crow!

The word Paradise had long since stopped popping from my lips.

(Sucking teeth) an act of insubordination… treaded accordingly…

(Jamaican) see his face contort with the agony of denied self-
expression.
The entire village had come out to play dog with gecko… under this
scrutiny we darkies moved with the awkwardness of thieves caught
in a sunbeam.
Ta, ducks,… ya… bloddy hell..they speak it just like us, only funnier.
v/s. Certainly, madam, but please…
‘Eyebrows jumped’ like ‘caterpillars in a polka’. Humph. Your
country? He asked without a need of an answer.
Mother... Refined, mannerly and cultured v/s. (Pejorative) filthy
tramp… twisted-crooked weary woman. Stinking cantankerous hag.

.. like the Lord she takes care of you from afar…v/s. lordly eyes
“who the bloody hell are you?”
Oi, darkie,show us yer tail
How come England did not know me?

Savages, jungles, swinging through the trees

Fucking Limeys, these niggers are more trouble than they’re worth

Coloured, black, nigger… (not one aspersion caused Gilbert as

much) outrage as the word ‘soldier’
I am loyal to my flag. But you could never find no self-respecting
white man going into a battle with a nigger. No, not master race
theory – Jim Crow!
Politeness had always been my policy. It makes the good people of
England revise what they think of you. ... Oh yes Mummy, it
speaks, and when it speaks it usually speaks with courtesy.
Devil (darkies)

All niggers- she stopped All coloureds up the back rows

If you build a bonfire from the dirtiest tinder, is it the stray sparks
you blame when the flames start to lick?
If Hortense had money to buy me then… my price was not too dear.

Luck England-style
Soon I would believe there was indeed something wrong with me

Luck England-style
When are you going back to the jungle…? A coon. The jungle… But I
just get here, man, and I not fucked your wife yet.
I became hungry for the good in people
She laughed… the sky opened on a sharp beam of sunlight.
I looked like a suspect. What crime? Oh, any will do. There are
some words that once spoken will split the world in two.

·        “laughter is part of my war effort” – Gilbert’s lovable humour

❤

·        “the defeat of hatred is the purpose of war” – Gilbert

·        Gilbert can recite all the major canals of England, but “England
did not know me” – shows the unequal relationship between
Britain and the countries of their empire.
·        “coloured servicemen were fighting this war on another
front” – demonstrates a major conflict of this book, beyond the
external conflict of WW2 – the internal conflict going on inside
white people’s heads, between their traditional racism and the new
acceptance they must adopt.

·        American GIs find racism “sport” and black Americans

accept “it’s the way of things”
·        “what a forlorn desire to seek indifference” Gilbert finds
England a “thankless place” until a small act of kindness
offers “salvation” to him – shows the dire situation of immigrants in
Britain.
·        “opportunity ripened in England as abundant as fruit on
Jamaican trees” – shows the perception of Britain by people from
subject colonies, and how desperately they wanted to go to
the “Mother Country”

·        “I am not too proud to tell you I sobbed like

a boy
” – lost” –
’ , Gilbert’s transparency with the reader,
increasinH Gis. likeability.
A broken chair that rested one uneven leg on the Holy Bible.
That bit taller, you see

·        “I had, no thought of courtship, my only need

was her
.” – adoration.
, ” – Gilbert on Celia, showinH Gow
he used
. her.
Elwood was right… warm in Jamaica… bloody and barefoot

A friend? With the likes of you? Excitable, these darkies

-well as far as her round flat nose could-
Feel the sun’s heat on my face gradually change from roasting to
caressing
C- BiH Gouse with a bell. I will ring the bell in this house.
H- But when I pressed this doorbell I did not hear a ring. No ding-a-
ling, ding-a-ling.
Shabby in a grand sort of way. The glass stained… as a church would
have.
Devilish deeds (of) Mr. Hitler’s bombs

H- perchance,
White me who worked were made to work because they were
fools.
My father was a man of class… newspapers of America, Canada and
England.
I was born … out of wedlock.
My complexion was light as his; the colour of warm honey… with
such a countenance there was a chance for a golden life for I
Her colossal leather worn hands … her breasts wobbled … her legs
bowed.
I sat quiet as a vigil.

Nappy-headed, runny-nosed, foul smelling ragamuffins. Sixty black

faces… wealthy, fair skinned, high class children
I thought I had spoken these words only in my head
Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.

A chair-tumbling through the air towards me.

Light skinned girls in pristine uniforms… fountain of an English
curriculum

Small boys lined up to place gifts before her every morning. Little
girls jostled and pushed
Wretched black faces
But what about your mother Celia? Am I to look after her too? The
playful light in her eyes suddenly extinguished, she stood as still as
a stone.
Her comely smile belied the rudeness of her tone.
H- I have found this a very cold country.
·        “untroubled by the sound of their rising laughter” – Hortense’s
greatest strength: her dignity and determination to carry on
regardless of what others think.
·        “the bell was not operational” – Hortense’s unusual speech
pattern.
·        Single women “can’t travel alone” – shows the oppression of
women at this time and one of the challenges Hortense has to
overcome.
He was not the law but he was authority
Most exemplary English in the known world.

What do you think of that, Celia Langley?

She placed me not only in the shower but firmly under her wing.

H about C-I refused to notice the trail of a tear…’They will be

leaving for England soon, we must wave them goodbye.’
I could understand why it was of the greatest importance to her
that slavery should not return. Her skin was so dark. But mine was
not of that hue – it was the colour of warm honey. No one would
think t enchain someone as I… Britons never, never, never shall be
slaves.

Celia’s eyes were tight shut… her lips mumbling ‘oh, no’, and a fresh
tear
(Celia would be) sipping fruit punch and fanninH Gerself in sunlight.

H about Evelyn -Oblivious to the spectacle … she stood fanninH

Gerself as haughty as nobility…Yet there was no spirit in her eyes:
they remained as expressionless and unengaged as the simulated
gaze of a doll.

Sucking on his teeth so fierce I feared he might swallow them.

No wife of mine will be on her knees in this country… no one will
watch us weep in this country
Not everything the English do is good

Gilbert, come, you scared of a little hard work. I can help you…
beautiful woman commanded nothing but the best.
Gilbert Joseph, my husband, was a man of class, a man of character,
a man of intelligence. Noble in a way that would someday make
him a legend.
Shirt outside his trousers…panting like a dog…adjusted my hat…
straightened my coat against the WIND.
·        “shrivel in the face of her scorn” – Gilbert being intimidated by
Hortense
·        Hortense thinks Gilbert coming to her job interview would
“darken up the place” – shows Hortense’s racism.
·        Hortense sees her marriage with Gilbert as “a business deal”
Cold foot… not a man in the world would refuse… ding-a-ling, ding-
a-ling
A man of character, a man of Intelligence, noble in a way that made
him a legend
·        “” –
legend”( – Hortense on her father (whom she
admired for) his light skin) then later on Gilbert
(whom - she admired for his anti-racist speech to
Bernard), showinH Gow her views changed throughout
the
I can’tbook.
. take you all the way on me trolley, love … white man could
not have thought me so stupid
Cha!... di… nuh

Miss Hortense/mee sprigadee

De Lawd born ah Hengland?... Of course,

She looked to me for all her knowledge of England.

I wandered lonely as a cloud/ that floats on high o’er vales and hills,
/ when all at once I saw a crowd, / a host of golden daffodils.

Den me float over de ill…see Miss Hortense look upon de daffodil

dem.
Mr Ryder- Someone must help these poor negro children.
Education is all they have… took only the wealthiest, fairest and
highest-class children from the district.
Mr Ryder was spreading more than just his love for learning.

Have you seen Sugar? She’s one of you.

hummingbird…sample the nectar of English flowers

I lost them all in a hurricane (family)

·        “well loved and respected” – Michael

Principle …We must all have principle …scared I would be

entranced by the lines… danced with the wonder of the scriptures
M-Perchance
Miss Morgan- no matter what their colour, no matter what their
creed, men who are fighting to protect the people of Great Britain…
are gallant heroes- be they dead or alive.
I went to Africa when it came to Wembley

The inside girls who helped mother with the pies… the outside girls
who fed the pigs and poultry
The Great War was not long over but nearly forgotten.

The Empire in little. A sheep being sheared in New Zealand…Hong

Kong smelt of drains, and India was full of women brightly dressed

Skin as black as the ink

Carved from melting chocolate… a monkey man sweating a sweat
of mothballs… the droplets of sweat on his forehead glistened and
shone like jewels
His lips were brown, not pink like they should be, and they bulged
with air like bicycle tyres … the inside of his mouth was pink.
He could have swallowed me up, this big nigger man. But instead
he said, in clear English, ‘Perhaps we could shake hands instead?’
It was warm and slightly sweaty like anyone else’s.
Q- backsides as big as buses.
Moaned about the Jews even after we knew what the poor beggars
had been through. They were all right in their own country.

I did my patriotic duty- got myself looking as good as I could.

Woman in a house alone with coloureds?...knew nothing of

manners. Washed in oil and smelt foul of it….
Q- Her fierce finger wagging… shut up with your nigger, I prefer
them to you any day
Queenie Bligh believed herself to be safeguarding me

Soft brother Harry… but he were hungry queenie, he were hungry

After that I became a vegetarian… ‘Our meat’s not good enough for
Queenie B’ Father roared
Mouth was too quick to stretch into a smile…’you’ll never get into
polite society like that’
Q-My mouth was too weak, it needed discipline.
I had been walking all wrong since I was a baby.

Floating on feet that never felt the ground v/s. “Is that all courting
is?” “awkward”
(family moving in on the street) unreadable as a corpse… mites…
girl, carried a gas mask box, a boy, a little stuffed toy…trousers too
big for him… it lay there on the road, got run-over by a car.
I was protecting my husband against those big bad incendiaries… I
felt so peaceful being embraced by him and gently whispering
‘there, there, Bernard, there, there’
(That’s how they saw them) -population, not people.
A mass whose desperation…drained the classrooms of all colour…
white potties… glinted like diamonds.
All we had to offer anyone was a blinking cup of tea.
Plumped almost as proud… shoulders got broader… hands more
manly… almost jealous

I called his name… it made me feel safe.

·        “monkey man” “bicycle tyres” “jewels” “chocolate” – similes

used in Queenie’s first meeting with an African man. Shows she’s
been raised in a racist environment and doesn’t have the
vocabulary to describe him, but isn’t completely negative.

·        “Is that all courting is?” “awkward” sex life – Quennie and
Bernard’s unhappy relationship.
·        “I was a piece of luck – no more, no less” – Queenie was taken
advantage of by Michael

·        Queenie initially finds war “exciting” but later says “I had had

enough of war. Come on, let’s all just get back to being bored.” –
shows how the negatives of war outweigh any positives it brings.

·        “You’ll find I’m not like most. It doesn’t worry me to be seen
out with darkies.” –  Queenie takes pride in her accepting attitude.

(I just need to know you’re alive) Oh, yes, very much so.

There’s thousands of people having much more of a war than you

are,
She would have liked to live with a hero

Blinking place yawned in my face every morning…I thought he’d

take it hot like a man…but he slurped
He was wanting a new start. What else was the victory for?

Bernard had no right to be so sensible. so just. So, caring. He’d fund

them but he had no business to try to use them now to persuade.

·        Queenie wants to help war refugees because “they’re

people” but Bernard doesn’t approve because “they’re not our
sort.” – shows her acceptance and his prejudice.
·        “She would have liked to live with a hero.” – Bernard’s
disappointment in himself.
Your husband will be locked from this home… Good

They’d want Michael to go back up to the back of the picture

house.

Tears that dripped, one at a time, from her eye, over his lips and
onto his tongue.
·        “I haven’t got the guts” to raise a biracial child – Queenie’s
disappointing end.
A model engine or soldiers

Chief or prince … have learned to be civilised – taught English by

the white man, missionaries probably.

We went up and up into the heavens… you’ve got the whole world
at your feet, lass.
They are not civilised. They only understand drums.

Gone with the wind

She tell me loud for all to hear ‘this is bread’

·        “’I’m’ sure .” –

there’s a lot I could teach you.” –
Queenie to , Hortense, demonstratinH Ger patronising
attitude towards
. black people.
I was lost in Africa again… smile a grin so broad and white…
projected a film on it.

completely forgot the name of the brown stuff we were always

drinking
Heat… coming from the gas ring or from him

In Herefordshire, Hertfordshire and Hampshire hurricanes hardly

ever happen… have you ever felt the force of a hurricane

I was a piece of luck. No more, no less.

Dots meant they were ill-in case they were contagious.

Africa was a country

Find quotes
Ruddy loud-mouth Yanks
His smile then became a chuckle at his own joke.
I shooed his hand away as he reached to touch my leg. The words did not
come out with the force I required of them
Gilbert Joseph took pleasure at my presence for no other reason than his big
ideas received a larger audience
House of Parliament in London… fairy-tale castle… dragons will breathe fire
on you soon.
My mirror spoke to me-I looked like a god
How the English built empires when their armies marched on nothing but
mush should be one of the wonders of the world
America is Paradise. A bath…that rivalled the Caribbean Sea in my affection.

Yes, sir – umm umm. This momentarily took the officer by surprise, his back
stiffening before carrying on.
Best welcome Uncle Sam could give to the negros of an ally. You will not be
treated as negroes!
Anthropoid … Hitler and his friends … resembling a human but primitive, like
an ape
He met Jesus on the battlefield.
When him colour no suit them… you wanna go licky-licky to them… I was
ready to fight this master race theory.
(West Indians from American view had) Superior black skin.
They had a name for it-no, not master race theory - Jim Crow!
The word Paradise had long since stopped popping from my lips.
(Sucking teeth) an act of insubordination… treaded accordingly… (Jamaican)
see his face contort with the agony of denied self-expression.
The entire village had come out to play dog with gecko… under this scrutiny
we darkies moved with the awkwardness of thieves caught in a sunbeam.
Ta, ducks,… ya… bloddy hell..they speak it just like us, only funnier. v/s.
Certainly, madam, but please…
‘Eyebrows jumped’ like ‘caterpillars in a polka’. Humph. Your country? He
asked without a need of an answer.
Mother... Refined, mannerly and cultured v/s. (Pejorative) filthy tramp…
twisted-crooked weary woman. Stinking cantankerous hag.
.. like the Lord she takes care of you from afar…v/s. lordly eyes “who the
bloody hell are you?”
Oi, darkie,show us yer tail
How come England did not know me?
Savages, jungles, swinging through the trees
Fucking Limeys, these niggers are more trouble than they’re worth
Coloured, black, nigger… (not one aspersion caused Gilbert as much) outrage
as the word ‘soldier’
I am loyal to my flag. But you could never find no self-respecting white man
going into a battle with a nigger. No, not master race theory – Jim Crow!
Politeness had always been my policy. It makes the good people of England
revise what they think of you. ... Oh yes Mummy, it speaks, and when it
speaks it usually speaks with courtesy.
Devil (darkies)
All niggers- she stopped All coloureds up the back rows
If you build a bonfire from the dirtiest tinder, is it the stray sparks you blame
when the flames start to lick?
If Hortense had money to buy me then… my price was not too dear.
Luck England-style
Soon I would believe there was indeed something wrong with me
Luck England-style
When are you going back to the jungle…? A coon. The jungle… But I just get
here, man, and I not fucked your wife yet.
I became hungry for the good in people
She laughed… the sky opened on a sharp beam of sunlight.
I looked like a suspect. What crime? Oh, any will do. There are some words
that once spoken will split the world in two.
·        “laughter is part of my war effort” – Gilbert’s lovable humour ❤
·        “the defeat of hatred is the purpose of war” – Gilbert
·        Gilbert can recite all the major canals of England, but “England did not
know me” – shows the unequal relationship between Britain and the
countries of their empire.
·        “coloured servicemen were fighting this war on another front” –
demonstrates a major conflict of this book, beyond the external conflict of
WW2 – the internal conflict going on inside white people’s heads, between
their traditional racism and the new acceptance they must adopt.

·        American GIs find racism “sport” and black Americans accept “it’s the

way of things”
·        “what a forlorn desire to seek indifference” Gilbert finds England
a “thankless place” until a small act of kindness offers “salvation” to him –
shows the dire situation of immigrants in Britain.
·        “opportunity ripened in England as abundant as fruit on Jamaican
trees” – shows the perception of Britain by people from subject colonies, and
how desperately they wanted to go to the “Mother Country”
·        “I am not too proud to tell you I sobbed like a boy
lost” – ’Gilbert’
, s transparency with the reader, increasinH
Gis
A likeability.
broken
. chair that rested one uneven leg on the Holy Bible.
That bit taller, you see
·        “I had, no thought of courtship, my only need was her
adoration.” – Gilbert
, . on Celia, showinH Gow he used her.
Elwood was right… warm in Jamaica… bloody and barefoot
A friend? With the likes of you? Excitable, these darkies
Arthur: a human apostrophe… Arthur was a magician.
I would die if anythinH Gappened to you…deep like Bernard’s was posh as
the BBC… opened the covers for him to get into bed with me.

I went to Africa when it came to Wembley

The inside girls who helped mother with the pies… the outside girls who
fed the pigs and poultry

The Great War was not long over but nearly forgotten.
The Empire in little. A sheep being sheared in New Zealand…Hong Kong
smelt of drains, and India was full of women brightly dressed
Skin as black as the ink
Carved from melting chocolate… a monkey man sweating a sweat of
mothballs… the droplets of sweat on his forehead glistened and shone like
jewels
His lips were brown, not pink like they should be, and they bulged with air
like bicycle tyres … the inside of his mouth was pink.
He could have swallowed me up, this big nigger man. But instead he said,
in clear English, ‘Perhaps we could shake hands instead?’
It was warm and slightly sweaty like anyone else’s.
Q- backsides as big as buses.
Moaned about the Jews even after we knew what the poor beggars had
been through. They were all right in their own country.
I did my patriotic duty- got myself looking as good as I could.
Woman in a house alone with coloureds?...knew nothing of manners.
Washed in oil and smelt foul of it….
Q- Her fierce finger wagging… shut up with your nigger, I prefer them to
you any day
Queenie Bligh believed herself to be safeguarding me
Soft brother Harry… but he were hungry queenie, he were hungry
After that I became a vegetarian… ‘Our meat’s not good enough for
Queenie B’ Father roared
Mouth was too quick to stretch into a smile…’you’ll never get into polite
society like that’
Q-My mouth was too weak, it needed discipline.
I had been walking all wrong since I was a baby.
Floating on feet that never felt the ground v/s. “Is that all courting is?”
“awkward”
(family moving in on the street) unreadable as a corpse… mites… girl,
carried a gas mask box, a boy, a little stuffed toy…trousers too big for him…
it lay there on the road, got run-over by a car.
I was protecting my husband against those big bad incendiaries… I felt so
peaceful being embraced by him and gently whispering ‘there, there,
Bernard, there, there’
(That’s how they saw them) -population, not people.
A mass whose desperation…drained the classrooms of all colour… white
potties… glinted like diamonds.
All we had to offer anyone was a blinking cup of tea.
Plumped almost as proud… shoulders got broader… hands more manly…
almost jealous
I called his name… it made me feel safe.

·        “monkey man” “bicycle tyres” “jewels” “chocolate” – similes used in

Queenie’s first meeting with an African man. Shows she’s been raised in a
racist environment and doesn’t have the vocabulary to describe him, but
isn’t completely negative.
·        “Is that all courting is?” “awkward” sex life – Quennie and Bernard’s
unhappy relationship.
·        “I was a piece of luck – no more, no less” – Queenie was taken
advantage of by Michael
·        Queenie initially finds war “exciting” but later says “I had had enough
of war. Come on, let’s all just get back to being bored.” – shows how the
negatives of war outweigh any positives it brings.
·        “You’ll find I’m not like most. It doesn’t worry me to be seen out with
darkies.” –  Queenie takes pride in her accepting attitude.
(I just need to know you’re alive) Oh, yes, very much so.
There’s thousands of people having much more of a war than you are,
She would have liked to live with a hero
Blinking place yawned in my face every morning…I thought he’d take it hot
like a man…but he slurped
He was wanting a new start. What else was the victory for?
Bernard had no right to be so sensible. so just. So, caring. He’d fund them
but he had no business to try to use them now to persuade.
·        Queenie wants to help war refugees because “they’re people” but
Bernard doesn’t approve because “they’re not our sort.” – shows her
acceptance and his prejudice.
·        “She would have liked to live with a hero.” – Bernard’s
disappointment in himself.
Your husband will be locked from this home… Good
They’d want Michael to go back up to the back of the picture house.
Tears that dripped, one at a time, from her eye, over his lips and onto his
tongue.
·        “I haven’t got the guts” to raise a biracial child – Queenie’s
disappointing end.
A model engine or soldiers
Chief or prince … have learned to be civilised – taught English by the white
man, missionaries probably.
We went up and up into the heavens… you’ve got the whole world at your
feet, lass.
They are not civilised. They only understand drums.
Gone with the wind
She tell me loud for all to hear ‘this is bread’
·        “’I’m’ sure .” –
there’s a lot I could teach you.” –
Queenie to , Hortense, demonstratinH Ger patronising
attitude towards
. black people.
I was lost in Africa again… smile a grin so broad and white… projected a
film on it.
completely forgot the name of the brown stuff we were always drinking
Heat… coming from the gas ring or from him
In Herefordshire, Hertfordshire and Hampshire hurricanes hardly ever
happen… have you ever felt the force of a hurricane
I was a piece of luck. No more, no less.
Dots meant they were ill-in case they were contagious.
Africa was a country
Just a selection for draft purposes

Soft brother Harry… but he were hungry queenie, he were hungry

Mouth was too quick to stretch into a smile…’you’ll never get into polite
society like that’

Q-My mouth was too weak, it needed discipline.

I was protecting my husband against those big bad incendiaries… I felt so
peaceful being embraced by him and gently whispering ‘there, there,
Bernard, there, there’
·        “I was a piece of luck – no more, no less” – Queenie was taken
advantage of by Michael
(I just need to know you’re alive) Oh, yes, very much so.

completely forgot the name of the brown stuff we were always drinking
In Herefordshire, Hertfordshire and Hampshire hurricanes hardly ever
happen… have you ever felt the force of a hurricane

Dots meant they were ill-in case they were contagious.

Horense quotes

-well as far as her round flat nose could-

Feel the sun’s heat on my face gradually change from roasting
to caressing

C- BiH Gouse with a bell. I will ring the bell in this house.

H- But when I pressed this doorbell I did not hear a ring. No

ding-a-ling, ding-a-ling.

Shabby in a grand sort of way. The glass stained… as a church

would have.
Devilish deeds (of) Mr. Hitler’s bombs
H- perchance,
White me who worked were made to work because they were
fools.
My father was a man of class… newspapers of America,
Canada and England.
I was born … out of wedlock.
My complexion was light as his; the colour of warm honey…
with such a countenance there was a chance for a golden life
for I
Her colossal leather worn hands … her breasts wobbled … her
legs bowed.
I sat quiet as a vigil.
Nappy-headed, runny-nosed, foul smelling ragamuffins. Sixty
black faces… wealthy, fair skinned, high class children
I thought I had spoken these words only in my head
Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.
A chair-tumbling through the air towards me.
Light skinned girls in pristine uniforms… fountain of an English
curriculum
Small boys lined up to place gifts before her every morning.
Little girls jostled and pushed
Wretched black faces
But what about your mother Celia? Am I to look after her too?
The playful light in her eyes suddenly extinguished, she stood
as still as a stone.
He was not the law but he was authority
What do you think of that, Celia Langley?
She placed me not only in the shower but firmly under her
wing.
H about C-I refused to notice the trail of a tear…’They will be
leaving for England soon, we must wave them goodbye.’
I could understand why it was of the greatest importance to
her that slavery should not return. Her skin was so dark. But
mine was not of that hue – it was the colour of warm honey.
No one would think t enchain someone as I… Britons never,
never, never shall be slaves.

Celia’s eyes were tight shut… her lips mumbling ‘oh, no’, and a
fresh tear
(Celia would be) sipping fruit punch and fanninH Gerself in
sunlight.
H about Evelyn -Oblivious to the spectacle … she stood
fanninH Gerself as haughty as nobility…Yet there was no spirit
in her eyes: they remained as expressionless and unengaged
as the simulated gaze of a doll.

Sucking on his teeth so fierce I feared he might swallow them.

A man of character, a man of Intelligence, noble in a way that

made him a legend
I can’t take you all the way on me trolley, love … white man
could not have thought me so stupid
Cha!... di… nuh
Miss Hortense/mee sprigadee
De Lawd born ah Hengland?... Of course,
She looked to me for all her knowledge of England.
I wandered lonely as a cloud/ that floats on high o’er vales and
hills, / when all at once I saw a crowd, / a host of golden
daffodils.
Den me float over de ill…see Miss Hortense look upon de
daffodil dem.
Gone with the wind
M-Perchance
Most exemplary English in the known world.
Her comely smile belied the rudeness of her tone.
H- I have found this a very cold country.
Gilbert, come, you no scared of a little hard work. I can help
you… beautiful woman commanded nothing but the best.
Cold foot… not a man in the world would refuse… ding-a-ling,
ding-a-ling
Gilbert Joseph, my husband, was a man of class, a man of
character, a man of intelligence. Noble in a way that would
someday make him a legend.
Shirt outside his trousers…panting like a dog…adjusted my
hat…straightened my coat against the WIND.

·        “untroubled by the sound of their rising laughter”

– Hortense’s greatest strength: her dignity and determination
to carry on regardless of what others think.
·        “the bell was not operational” – Hortense’s unusual
speech pattern.
·        “shrivel in the face of her scorn” – Gilbert being
intimidated by Hortense
·        Hortense thinks Gilbert coming to her job interview would
“darken up the place” – shows Hortense’s racism.
·        Hortense sees her marriage with Gilbert as “a business
deal”
Thesis: Hortense Roberts is presented as a puppet of the english colonial system, designed to carry out their propoganda
1. Education

2. Relationhip with gilbert and golden future

3. Her strength, transformation

Hortense idealising england

Hortense's deisre to go to england fuelled by michael
hortense's influence from british education and subsequent betrayal of celia langley immitate how the ordinary folk was

Hortense's occupation with her fathers class, rank and skin, potential link to edu

hortense grandma false statements daffodil

Hortense's greatest strength, not caring about others

Hortense gilbert race

her comley smile belied the rudeness of her tone

I wandered and wondered, WHAT THE FUCK IS A DAFFODIL? What do you think of that, Celia Langley?
- Sia Figiel

My complexion was light as his; the colour of ·        Hortense sees her marriage with Gilbert as “a business
warm honey… with such a countenance deal”
there was a chance for a golden life for I
Shirt outside his trousers…panting like a ·        “untroubled by the sound of their rising laughter”
dog…adjusted my hat…straightened my coat – Hortense’s greatest strength: her dignity and
against the WIND. determination to carry on regardless of what others think.
She placed me not only in the shower but Miss Hortense/mee sprigadee
firmly under her wing.

·        Hortense thinks Gilbert coming to her job H- I have found this a very
interview would “darken up the place” cold country.
– shows Hortense’s racism.
Gilbert, come, you no scared of a little hard
work. I can help you… beautiful woman
commanded nothing but the best.
Den me float over de ill…see Miss
Hortense look upon de daffodil
dem.
·        Arthur “was never my pa again” after fighting in WW1
Without Bernard fussing about him, pulling, coaxing, he began to unflur as sure as a flower that finally feels the
sun when the tree is gone.
B-These Jews are more trouble than they’re worth.
Children who should have been in school… ‘Baksheesh, Baksheesh’… father who was trying to sell his girl to a
Tommy
Shrug it off as best as I could…sweet, sickly, spicy scents.
Carnival coloured natives
Foreign themselves. Black. Indian.
Unintelligent slum dweller with nothing worth fighting for except the fanatical belief that his emperor is God.
Johnny- that voice trembled in my hands. Perfect English.
I was a coward… quivering like a girl. Could Queenie be proud of that?
Mechanics, teachers and clerks… wondering what Britain was being built without us
Not even a begging child was left on the road… this was an eerie spectacle for India
After two years in India, they still all looked the same to me. (H&M)
Pop
Father died fighting for his country… better words for a son to cherish?
Pop, you’re just a laughing stock… Maxi was the only one who could stomach you.
Sleek as marble/breasts dangling like a cow’s udder…she cried out…shut up
Ejaculation was a blessed release… defiling someone’s daughter… this war hadn’t made me a hero. It had brought
me down to my knees.
Responsible position…’married man’ An Englishman…’ But I felt like a beast
Johnny… hand no bigger than a monkey’s…wretched whore
Not… with hundreds of others
That’s what war had done to me… made death a reasonable thing.
Bold even, bouncing… thought I might start a rabbit farm
Jap…smiling at me. Friendly…hello like she’s talking to a neighbour. Hello as if shed known him all her life. Hello,
come in
War… threads of that fraying cloth were still in tangle
I longed for something to stir me… to opinion. Anger, hurt, disapproval. No idea what to feel… Actually, he was a
dear little Ithing.
I’m sorry, haven’t been a better husband to you.

·        “the war had been fought so people might live amongst their own kind” – Bernard
·        Bernard is proud to “represent decency” when fighting for the British Empire.
·        War “put a rod in the back and spring in the step of this middle-aged bank clerk who’d thought his life was
set” for Bernard – shows how war brought some positives as well as negatives.
·        “filthy black hands” – Bernard’s racism
·        “He’s just come back from fighting a war and now this country no longer feels like his own.” – Mrs Smith on
Mr Smith, but could also be applied to Bernard.
Ragged bunch of illiterates wanting to run their own country… British bulldog understands… nothing worse than
foreigners invading your land.
It makes you white. That is all, man. White. No better, no worse than me-just white.
I’m sorry… but I just can’t understand a single word that you’re saying.
Exploding, Get your filthy black hands off my wife!
Chapter 26: ‘He just clung to me for safe-keeping
like a toddler. And there I was, protecting my
husband against those big bad incendiaries, that
nasty flying shrapnel, and the horrid, horrid bombs
from the naughty, naughty German planes.’
Chapter 35: ‘I would have liked to be a hero of the
skies. A Brylcreem boy with the sun on my quiff.
The enemy coming at me, rat-a-tat-tat at three
o’clock. Diving swiftly. Hiding in a cloud. Emerging.
Giving the enemy machine everything I’d got.
Glorious deeds valiantly achieved. Queenie,
tearfully joyful at my return […] She would have
liked to live with a hero. I knew that much for a
fact.’

Bernard

Chapter 39: ‘Made me smile to think of that ragged

bunch of illiterates wanting to run their own
country. The British out of India? Only British troops
could keep those coolies under control.’

Chapter 40: ‘Dobie-wallahs washing clothes like

women […] And all around us a plague of
untouchables – happy to clean out the toilet cans
with bare hands. Miserable creatures. Even other
Indians hated them.’

Bernard

Chapter 41: Bernard shows

bravery when the basha
catches fire: ‘I ran at the
flames. The heat hit me like a
wall. Eyelids rasping like
barbed wire as I blinked
against scorching smoke.
Suffocating.’

Bernard

Chapter 44: Soon after Johnny Pierpoint tells

Bernard to get himself ‘fucked properly’ to show
his wife that he’d done something useful whilst
away, Bernard sleeps with a prostitute. ‘My
erection was fierce. I got on the bed behind her.
On my knees, I grabbed her where I could.
Rammed her in one. She cried out.’
‘I felt like a beast. It was then, as if from nowhere,
a sob fierce as a child’s rose in me.’

Bernard

Chapter 46: Bernard about Gilbert: ‘Eyes

popping out of his head like a golliwog’s. Stared
me up and down. Stepped back to get a better
look. Scratched his head, saying, “Well, well…”
Then the cheeky blighter put his hand out for
me to shake.

I just shut the bloody door on him.’

Bernard

Chapter 47: ‘“Listen to me, Bernard. I had to get

lodgers. I had no idea where you were. There was
no one going to look after me. I had to bring
people in.”

“I don’t doubt that, Queenie, but did they have

to be coloured? Couldn’t you have got decent
lodgers for the house? Respectable people?”’

Bernard

Chapter 48: Bernard has a dream about a

Japanese fighter pilot being welcomed into the
house by Queenie.

Chapter 54: Bernard shows true rage when he

thinks Gilbert was the one who got Queenie
pregnant: ‘Fearsome as the wrath of Samson, I
was puny before it. I raised my hand only to
shield my face as he shook me like a dog with a
doll.’

Bernard

Chapter 57: Bernard comforts the baby: ‘Was soon

sucking on my finger. Clamping his gums around,
soggy, wet. And warm. He sucked like it was
nectar. Quite content. Actually, he was a dear little
thing.’

Chapter 58: Bernard does not want Gilbert and

Hortense to take the baby: ‘He was red as a berry,
pure anger looking down at me.’