George Lamming, 94, “a giant of post-colonial literature whose novels, essays and speeches influenced readers and peers in his native Barbados and around the world,” died on June 4. The government of Barbados confirmed his death on Sunday, June 19, 2022. (Read story here).
Educated in Barbados, he obtained teaching work in Trinidad at age 19, where he stayed 4 years, then migrated to England and worked for BBC. Two years later, he published his first and most famous work, an autobiographical novel acclaimed for its portrayal of Caribbean society in the 1920s and 1930s.
He eventually pursued an academic career, and five more novels followed on themes that Black Quarterly Review said “shows how adrift black people can be as they search for a political, economic and social context” and “should also be read as an example of how black people have tried to use the novel to tell their own unique story in a unique way.”
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