The Windrush Letters
cultural solutions UK commissioned writer Tyrone Huggins to write three monologues in the form of letters highlighting the challenges and opportunities of Caribbeans responding to the 'Mother Country's' request for assistance post World War II.
Each of these fictional characters share a lineage that spans a total of 160 years, from St Kitts in 1860 - Amsterdam in 'Lockdown' during 2020
Elizabeth Hamilton [Betty] (b 1860)
She is writing in 1940 to her grandson Maxwell (18) who that year stole away from St Kitts determined to join the British Army while his mother was away working away in Cuba.
Maxwell Jones (b 1922)
Maxwell (58) is writing a letter in 1980 to his estranged wife Mary about their son Joseph (20), who he has not been in contact with for seven years, asking how he might get in touch with him.
Photo credit: Nottingham City Museums
Eleanor Byrne [Elle] (b 1998)
Elle (22), is the granddaughter of Joseph writing in early 2020 from unexpected lockdown in Amsterdam to a friend in the UK, having travelled there to find out more about her Moluccan inheritance, more than her Moluccan/Caribbean mother and white English father can tell her.
Elle is in possession of the weather-beaten airmail letter from her great great great grandmother Betty.