Bageye at the Wheel

Grant [Colin]

ISBN 10: 0224091050 / ISBN 13: 9780224091053

Published by Jonathan Cape, London, 2012

About this Item

SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR (viii), 280pp, black endpapers, title page inscribed "Sue, walk good" and signed by (?) the author, maroon cloth with gilt spine lettering, dust jacket in excellent, unclipped condition. Size: 8.75 x 5.5 Inches.

Seller Inventory # 014357

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Bageye at the Wheel
• Publisher: Jonathan Cape, London
• Publication Date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0224091050
• ISBN 13: 9780224091053
• Binding: Maroon Cloth
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: As New
• Dust Jacket Condition: As New
• Signed: By Author?
• Book Type: Biographical

About this title

Synopsis

To his fellow West Indians who assemble every weekend for the all-night poker game at Mrs Knight's, he is always known as Bageye. There aren't very many black men in Luton in 1972 and most of them gather at Mrs Knight's - Summer Wear, Pioneer, Anxious, Tidy Boots - each has his nickname. Bageye already finds it a struggle to feed his family on his wage from Vauxhall Motors, but now his wife Blossom has set her heart on her sons going to private school.

In this wonderful memoir Colin Grant looks at his father through the eyes of his ten-year-old self. Colin is Bageye's favourite 'pickney', and often his reluctant companion in his latest attempt to placate Blossom with another DIY project, or a little cash. When he acquires a less than roadworthy old car, Bageye sets himself up as an unofficial minicab service, lack of a driving licence notwithstanding. More profitable are his marijuana deals, until the day he mistakenly entrusts Colin with choosing a hiding place for a huge bag of ganja...

About the Author

Colin Grant is an author, historian and critic. He has written acclaimed biographies of the Wailers and of Marcus Garvey. Bageye at the Wheel, his memoir of growing up in a Caribbean family in 1970s Luton, was shortlisted for the PEN Ackerley Prize. His history of epilepsy, A Smell of Burning, was a Sunday Times Book of the Year. His most recent book, Homecoming: Voices of the Windrush Generation, was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week and Daily Telegraph Book of the Year. He is director of WritersMosaic and a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.