They’re found by John, who returns from the vicious suppression of the uprising and shoots himself in the head.Ĭaroline convinces herself that Nimrod killed her brother, and he’s subsequently pursued and shot by the overseer. In the following days, Caroline and John leave the plantation, and July starts a romance with Nimrod, a formely enslaved person. July grows up in the house, and is serving Caroline’s guests at her ostentatious Christmas dinner when news of an uprising among enslaved people across Jamaica - the Baptist War of 1831 - reaches the house. At night, Kitty repeatedly sneaks out to the house, hoping to see her stolen daughter through the windows. Caroline renames July “Marguerite,” and moves her to the plantation house to be her lady’s maid. The book is punctuated by Thomas’ frequent attempts to mould his mother’s story into the traditional confines of a novel – attempts that July resists.Īs a child, July is separated from her mother by Caroline Mortimer, the sister of the plantation owner, John Howarth. It’s July’s voice that drives the novel in the preface, she explains that her son, Thomas, is a publisher, who will be printing her memoir. She’s raped by the overseer of the plantation, and ultimately gives birth to a girl: July. But what happens in the original book? Keep reading to find out.Īfter a preface (more on that later), the novel begins with Kitty, an enslaved woman on a British sugar plantation in Jamaica. The adaptation stars Tamara Lawrance as July, with Hayley Atwell playing Caroline Mortimer and Sir Lenny Henry playing Godfrey. Tonight sees the premiere of a highly anticipated drama from the BBC: The Long Song, an adaptation of Andrea Levy’s 2010 novel which won the Walter Scott Prize and was shortlisted for the Booker.
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