Growing up in the Caribbean - an introduction

An introduction by Richard Gallon describing the background to the Memories from the Islands oral history project.

In the spring of 2003, Library Services at Home (LSAH) began work on this project as part of our ongoing oral history work and as part of Black History Month. We decided to interview some of the service's African Caribbean readers about their experiences of growing up in the Caribbean Islands, and coming over to England.

After consulting our records we formed a group of African Caribbean readers who were interested in taking part. Eventually eleven people were interviewed and recorded by Sue Campbell and Nathan Campbell.

Everyone was asked a standard set of questions about childhood, family life, school, leisure and community. However, this only formed a basis for the recordings, as everyone had more to say about their varied memories and experiences.

This display represents extracts taken from these recordings to illustrate the wide range of fascinating and informative topics covered.

We would like to thank all those people who were kind enough to share their time and memories with us, and hope that this project will provide a valuable resource for future generations.

Page last updated: 23 August 2023