AS SEEN IN THE OBSERVER
Stanley J. Browne is an actor, and he has been an actor all his life.
Born to a Jamaican mother in a London suburb, he began rehearsing for
the role of survivor from an early age. From birth he knew nothing but a
home filled with love and the vibrancy of a Caribbean culture, but this
changes when his mother is diagnosed with schizophrenia.
In this honest and gripping memoir, Stanley reflects on a childhood and
adolescence torn apart by mental disorder. Because of it, he adopts the
mantle of 'man of the house' as he is forced to scavenge for food and
miss school, with his two sisters, to care for his baby brother. His
life is further fragmented as they yo-yo in and out of the care system
and Stanley must face the reality of being separated from his siblings.
An intelligent and sensitive child, Stanley descends into a life of
crime and drug abuse. During his time spent in various young offender's
institutions and prisons he battles with addiction and slowly begins to
turn his life around.
Set against a backdrop of 1970s poverty, racism and hardship, Little
Big Man is a powerful story of generational trauma and one man's
determination to heal the wounds of the past. Most of all, it is a book
about the universal desire for love, belonging and the search to find an
authentic voice through the redemptive power of creativity and recovery.
