Lamplighter

‘Ambitious, defiant, angry and gripping . . . the bitter story of slavery through the experience of four women’ Guardian'Jackie Kay’s work, formally expansive and inclusive . . . is always about the opening up of our notions of identity' Ali Smith, author of How to Be BothIn The Lamplighter award-winning poet and Scottish Makar Jackie Kay takes us on a journey into the dark heart of Britain’s legacy in the slave trade.First produced as a play, on the page it reads as a profound and tragic multi-layered poem. We watch as four women and one man tell the story of their lives through slavery, from the fort, to the slave ship, through the middle passage, following life on the plantations, charting the growth of the British city and the industrial revolution. Constance has witnessed the sale of her own child; Mary has been beaten to an inch of her life; Black Harriot has been forced to sell her body; and our lead, the Lamplighter, was sold twice into slavery from the ports in Bristol. Their different voices sing together in a rousing chorus that speaks to the experiences of all those brutalised by slavery, and lifts in the end to a soaring and powerful conclusion. Stirring, impassioned and deeply affecting, The Lamplighter remains as essential today as the day it was first performed. This is an essential work by one of our most beloved writers.

One of Scotlands most celebrated living writers., Kay’s strength as a poet has always been her clear, plain style, and its fearless spoken poignancy, Ambitious, defiant, angry and gripping . . . the bitter story of slavery through the experience of four women, Jackie Kay’s work, formally expansive and inclusive, often an exploration of the hurt done by small-mindedness and its attendant exclusivity, is always about the opening up of our notions of identity . . . Kay has always been a watcher, a tracer of the “true” story., I am still reeling from The Lamplighter . . . It reads like the ballad of four enslaved women as they tell us their personal horrors. This book lays bare Britain’s role in the slave trade and it is an illuminating look at truths we would rather leave in the darkness. It is as beautiful as it is devastating.

Jackie Kay was born in Edinburgh. She is the third modern Makar, the Scottish poet laureate. A poet, novelist and writer of short stories, she has enjoyed great acclaim for her work for both adults and children. Her novel Trumpet won the Guardian Fiction Prize. She is also the author of collections of stories with Picador, Why Don't You Stop Talking, Wish I Was Here, and Reality, Reality; a poetry collection, Fiere; and a memoir, Red Dust Road. She is Professor of Creative Writing at Newcastle University, and lives in Manchester, where she is currently Chancellor of the University of Salford.