Books by James Berry

Only One of Me is a stunning collection of the best-loved children's poems from award-winning poet James Berry, filled with warm and colourful memories of a Caribbean childhood, and featuring a new introduction by much-loved children's poet, John Agard. This new edition of James' definitive collection showcases the very best work from a poet who was instrumental in the British Caribbean poetry movement and who's words are just as relevant now as they were twenty years ago.

Some people have dresses for every occasion but Afiya needs only one. Her dress records the memories of her childhood, from roses in bloom to pigeons in flight, from tigers at the zoo to October leaves falling. A joyful celebration of a young girl's childhood, written by the late multi-award-winning Jamaican poet James Berry OBE.

Does innocence outweigh guilt when one violates the law if doing so benefits the greater moral good? This is put to the test when Jake, a young successful civil engineer, completes his project in a West African diamond-laden country and opens his luggage in London and finds that it is not his and that it contains smuggled contraband diamonds. He knows immediately that a Middle East diamond smuggling operation has gone awry with him ending up with the illicit goods, and that the violent cartel’s interest will be in retrieving their lost cache. The country of Sierra Leone, known for its diamonds and nefarious smuggling operations, is also a land where his late venerated grandfather served as a mission doctor. The gravity of possessing illicit contraband forces Jake to wrestle with his conscience over the moral dilemma of surrendering the diamonds to corrupt authorities or violate English law by returning them to the country of origin in the form of a hospital. The weight of innocence in using the diamonds for the hospital project becomes greater than the guilt of breaking the law. When he chooses to keep the diamonds for the greater good, events unfold that change his life forever: the meeting of two beautiful women in London who come to his aid and staying one-step ahead of the smugglers and the law.  After several violent attempts by the smugglers to retrieve the diamonds, he seeks advice and help from a beautiful Nefertiti-looking Sierra Leonean barrister practicing in London, whose late mother is English. Jake is a prodigal, the barrister a saint. The unreachable saintly barrister becomes the challenge for Jake, both emotionally and professionally.  To market the smuggled rough diamonds, Jake joins forces with an enchanting Nordic beauty, a prodigal like himself, whose experience is extensive in the diamond industry. Of the two women, one makes him millions for the hospital project in Africa with the rough, uncut diamonds, the other leads him back to the faith he rejected as a youth.

Gustas is nearly killed in the hurricane, trying to save his banana tree; Nenna and her brother patrol the cocnut plantation at night, ready to catch interlopers; Becky longs for a bicycle and Fanso longs to find his father who walked out thirteen years ago. This collection of short stories brings the author's Caribbean childhood vividly to life.