Monique Roffey was born in Trinidad in the 1960’s and spent her first 13 year’s living in Portof Spain before moving to England. She has received most of her formal education from the UK and recently received a doctorate from Lancaster University, in creative writing. She has been a journalist, travelled the Middle East extensively, worked for Amnesty International and taught english. Monique describes herself as having unruly hair and being ‘curmudgeonly when not being impulsive.’ Her first novel ‘Sun dog’ was published in 2002.
The inspiration for her book originally came from her mother who in the 1950’s left the UK by boat with her green Raleigh bicycle and two suitcases for Trinidad. She told Monique how she used to cycle round wearing her shorts drawing attention to herself. People used to say: “Oh you are the woman on the green bicycle”. Monique took this idea and mixed it with the political history of Trinidad to produce a novel spanning a 50 year period. Events such as the rise in popularity of Eric Williams and the People’s National Movement [PNM], independence of Trinidad and Tobago and civil unrest in the 1970’s are woven into the plot. The novel’s main themes are colonialism, love, hate, resentment and anger.
The two protagonists, George and Sabine, arrive in Trinidad on a three year working contract at a time the country is going through change. Sabine hates the place whilst George loves it. Sabine adapts to life in Trinidad but at a cost to their relationship. Whilst I found I was not completely absorbed by the characters the novel did leave me with a sense of sadness and wondering about life.
The inspiration for her book originally came from her mother who in the 1950’s left the UK by boat with her green Raleigh bicycle and two suitcases for Trinidad. She told Monique how she used to cycle round wearing her shorts drawing attention to herself. People used to say: “Oh you are the woman on the green bicycle”. Monique took this idea and mixed it with the political history of Trinidad to produce a novel spanning a 50 year period. Events such as the rise in popularity of Eric Williams and the People’s National Movement [PNM], independence of Trinidad and Tobago and civil unrest in the 1970’s are woven into the plot. The novel’s main themes are colonialism, love, hate, resentment and anger.
The two protagonists, George and Sabine, arrive in Trinidad on a three year working contract at a time the country is going through change. Sabine hates the place whilst George loves it. Sabine adapts to life in Trinidad but at a cost to their relationship. Whilst I found I was not completely absorbed by the characters the novel did leave me with a sense of sadness and wondering about life.
