Description
Marvella Payne is twenty-seven, works as a secretary for British Rail and has pledged to the congregation of the Church of the Holy Spirit that she will abstain from sex before marriage. When she repulses the groping hands of the trainee-deacon, Carlton Springle, she resigns herself to growing old with her mother, father and Bible-soaked aunts. But Aunt Julie has other ideas and finds Marvella a penfriend from her native Guyana. When good fortune allows the couple to meet, Marvella awakens to new possibilities as she realises how bound she has been by the voices of her dependent, cossetted childhood. But will marriage be another entrapment, another loss of self?
"Gather the Faces has a happy ending and is written with Gilroy's characteristic clarity of description and fluency of language. Its optimism shimmers, its spirituality glows in the beautiful verses quoted from the Biblical Song of Songs, and the reader is revivified as faith in love is restored."
Phyllis Briggs-Emmanuel, The Caribbean Writer
Beryl Gilroy came to London over fifty years ago from Guyana. She wrote six novels, two autobiographical books and was a pioneering teacher and psychotherapist. Sadly, she died in 2000 at the age of 76.
About the Author
Beryl Gilroy was one of the first West Indian women to come and live in Britain. She arrived from her native Guyana over forty years ago, and, despite holding bachelor and masters degrees, and being a qualified teacher, she was forced to take work as a cleaner, a washer-up and a 'Lady's maid'. Beryl eventually became London's first Black female teacher, her experiences are recorded in Black Teacher, Bogle I'Ouverture Press. She subsequently earned a doctorate and now works as a writer, academic and family therapist.
Book Information
ISBN 9780948833885
Author Beryl Gilroy
Format Paperback
Page Count 120
Imprint Peepal Tree Press Ltd
Publisher Peepal Tree Press Ltd
Weight(grams) 155g