• What sort of clothes did people wear in the time you are writing about?
• What were houses like?
• What impact did the events you are writing about have on people at the time.
• How might they have spoken?
• What might they have eaten?

When you have finished your story, simply enter it online. There will be local prizes and finalists will go through to the North West final.

For more information and full competition rules go to:
http://www.time-to-read.co.uk/Promotions/?fn=1&id=6&ps=16

Andrea Levy - Small Island
Submitted by Pat Mitchinson, Standish Library Book Group

Set against the backdrop of the aftermath of the Second World War, Small Island by Andrea Levy is a compelling and moving portrayal about the racial tensions that prevailed against Jamaican immigrants attempting to make their way in post-war Britain. Brought to life with remarkable intensity and humour, Levy’s characters are skilfully drawn and, at times, hilariously funny.

Through their moving stories we gain revealing insights into the impact that the war had on the lives of both black and white people living in Britain in 1948. Levy deftly defines the sharp contrast between the grey, monochrome dreariness of war-torn London and the warmth and colour of Jamaican life as reflected in the characters of Gilbert and Hortense.

Gilbert Joseph was one of many Jamaican men who served in the RAF during World War Two when all that mattered to British people was that Hitler did not reach the shores of Britain. As a Jamaican, he was fiercely proud of being part of the British empire. Having failed to make a living in Jamaica after the war, Gilbert, like many others in 1948, leaves his mother country and sets sail on the HMS Windrush to seek a better life in London. He dreams of a golden future but is met with hostility and racial discrimination until he finds Queenie Bligh, the plucky wife of Bernard, who shocks her neighbours by renting a room in her house to Gilbert and his Jamaican wife, Hortense.

Levy’s sense of dramatization never disappoints and the reader cannot fail to be stimulated by her characters and the scenes she creates. Queenie is a woman you cannot help but admire. Attractive and feisty, her complex relationships with her husband, Bernard; her intrepid father-in-law and her steamy love affair with Michael stir the emotions. She provides the perfect counterpoint to the proud and haughty Hortense who, fresh from Jamaica and believing herself to be a superior, ‘golden-skinned’ young woman, struggles to come to terms with cold, inhospitable London. Through their strong characterization, the reader can appreciate the humorous, cultural misunderstandings that arise from their different social backgrounds and can identify thoroughly with both.

Small Island is a compulsive read, some would say impossible to put down! A thought provoking book, skilfully written, it is deservedly won the Whitbread book of the Year and the Orange Prize for fiction. Some sixty years on, the overt racial discrimination Levy describes is very shocking and prompts us to appreciate how much attitudes have changed since then.

Even today, this moving story will challenge people’s prejudices. A great read!