Books by Mary Chamberlain

Heart-wrenching historical fiction from bestselling novelist Mary Chamberlain

'Beautifully crafted, elegantly written, with characters to root for - I loved this heart-stopping tale.' Saskia Sarginson, author of The Bench How do you rebuild a life from the ashes of despair? London 1958. Twenty-six-year-old Betty Fisher is one of the first to join the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and attend its inaugural meeting, where she meets John Harris. Posted to Berlin towards the end of the war, John has been left traumatised by his experiences in Germany. And, as his initial admiration for Betty shifts into an overwhelming need to protect her, he is plagued by flashbacks and fantasies. John's increasing fragility brings to the surface Betty's own memories. And soon her past, too, begins to unravel...

Her heart died in the war - can she breathe new life to it?

Mary Chamberlain explores the nature and meaning of migration for Barbadians who migrated to Britain and elsewhere in this oral and social history, based on life-story interviews across three or more generations of Barbadian families.

This original and exciting book examines the processes of nation building in the British West Indies. It argues that nation building was a more complex and messy affair, involving women and men in a range of social and cultural activities, in a variety of migratory settings, within a unique geo-political context. Taking as a case study Barbados which, in the 1930s, was the most economically impoverished, racially divided, socially disadvantaged and politically conservative of the British West Indian colonies, Empire and nation-building tells the messy, multiple stories of how a colony progressed to a nation. It is the first book to tell all sides of the independence story and will be of interest to specialists and non-specialists interested in the history of Empire, the Caribbean, of de-colonisation and nation building.

A history of old wives tales

A study based on 150 life story narratives across three generations of 45 families who originated in the former British West Indies. It offers a perspective on African-Caribbean families, their history, and the problems they face. It traces the evolution of Caribbean life; and makes comparisons with Indo-Caribbean families.