The Day I Fell Off My Island tells the story of Erna Mullings, a
teenage Jamaican girl uprooted from her island following the sudden
death of her beloved grandmother.
When Erna is sent to England to be reunited with her siblings, she
dreads leaving behind her elderly grandfather, and the only life she has
ever known. A new future unfolds, in a strange country and with a mother
she barely knows. The next decade will be a complex journey of
estrangement and arrival, new beginnings and the uncovering of
long-buried secrets.
A psychologist and former social worker, Yvonne Bailey-Smith, explains:
'As an immigrant child, I often wished that someone had been able to
take me aside and explain to me that leaving everything I knew to go on
a so-called adventure to somewhere way beyond my imagination was going
cause me an unimaginable sense of loss and sadness. I also wish that the
same person had been there to reassure me that I would survive and even
flourish, given half a chance. My work and conversations with children,
young people and adults, as well as with many friends, have given me a
unique insight into the travails of people who have experienced things
for which they felt utterly unprepared at the time.'