Delia Jarrett-Macauley , also known as Dee Jarrett-Macauley, is a London-based British writer, academic and broadcaster of

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

an heritage. Her debut novel, ''Moses, Citizen & Me'', won the 2006

Orwell Prize The Orwell Prize, based at University College London, is a British prize for political writing. The Prize is awarded by The Orwell Foundation, an independent charity (Registered Charity No 1161563, formerly "The Orwell Prize") governed by a boa ...

for political writing, the first novel to have been awarded the prize. She has devised and presented features on

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering ...

, as well as being a participant in a range of programmes. As a multi-disciplinary scholar in history, literature and cultural politics, she has taught at

Leeds University , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

Birkbeck, University of London , mottoeng = Advice comes over nightTranslation used by Birkbeck. , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £4.3 m (2014) , budget = £10 ...

, and other educational establishments, most recently as a fellow in English at the

University of Warwick , mottoeng = Mind moves matter , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £7.0 million (2021) , budget = £698.2 million (202 ...

."Delia Jarrett-Macauley biography"
Delia Jarrett-Macauley website. She is also a business and arts consultant, specialising in organisation development.

Early years and education

Delia Jarrett-Macauley was born in Hertfordshire to

Sierra Leone Creole The Sierra Leone Creole people ( kri, Krio people) are an ethnic group of Sierra Leone. The Sierra Leone Creole people are lineal descendant, descendants of freed African-American, Afro-Caribbean, and Liberated African slaves who settled in t ...

parents, their youngest daughter,Delia Jarrett-Macauley website.
/ref> and visited Sierra Leone as a child. She studied at York College for Girls and

Harrogate Grammar School Harrogate Grammar School is a co-educational academy school and sixth form in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England. It has around 1,900 pupils in the main school. A 2022 Ofsted inspection rated the school as 'Outstanding' in all five areas of ...

and earned her first degree in management and a

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

degree in English from

London University The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degr ...

Career: cultural sector and academia

Jarrett-Macauley began working in the cultural sector in the mid-1980s, including as Director of the Independent Theatre Council, and as a consultant to Arts Council England. She also managed the pan-African dance summer school and co-ordinated educational projects for African Players. In the 1990s she was joint director of the

Royal National Theatre The Royal National Theatre in London, commonly known as the National Theatre (NT), is one of the United Kingdom's three most prominent publicly funded performing arts venues, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Opera House. I ...

's project "Transmission", which focused on arts and social change in Europe. She has also judged prizes, served on the boards and been closely involved with a number of other cultural and literary initiatives, among them the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2007 as well as in 2016, when she was chair of the judging panel. In July 2016 Jarrett-Macauley was appointed chair of the Caine Prize board of trustees, stepping down in April 2019, when her successor was named as Ellah Wakatama Allfrey. Her university teaching career began in 1989, when she ran the first black women's studies courses on the MA in women's studies at the

University of Kent , motto_lang = , mottoeng = Literal translation: 'Whom to serve is to reign'(Book of Common Prayer translation: 'whose service is perfect freedom')Graham Martin, ''From Vision to Reality: the Making of the University of Kent at Canterbury'' ...

. Based on that programme of work, she subsequently edited the 1996 anthology ''Reconstructing Womanhood, Reconstructing Feminism: Writings on Black Women'', the first British feminist anthology to examine concepts of womanhood and feminism within the context of "race" and ethnicity. She also devised and led the arts management programme at

Birkbeck College , mottoeng = Advice comes over nightTranslation used by Birkbeck. , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £4.3 m (2014) , budget = £109 ...

, London. She has been a visiting fellow in gender studies at the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 mill ...

(LSE) and has taught a range of courses at the Universities of Kent, London and

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbourin ...

. She has also trained teachers at

Goldsmiths College Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wor ...

, London, and has contributed to many professional development courses in Europe at a range of institutions, including the

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

Summer University and (in association with the European Cultural Foundation) the

King Baudouin Foundation The King Baudouin Foundation (KBF) ( nl, Koning Boudewijnstichting, KBS; french: Fondation Roi-Baudouin) is an independent, pluralistic foundation based in Brussels (Belgium). It seeks to change society for the better and invests in inspiring proj ...

(

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

) and the European Network of Cultural Administration Training Centres. Jarrett-Macauley has contributed to a number of academic publications as author and board member, including '' Feminist Review'', ''

Women's History Review ''Women's History Review'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal of women's history published by Routledge. The editor-in-chief is June Purvis (University of Portsmouth) and Sharon Crozier-De Rosa is deputy editor. Abstracting and indexin ...

'', '' Journal of Gender Studies'', and '' Gender and History''. She is a contributor to the 2019 anthology '' New Daughters of Africa'', edited by Margaret Busby. In October 2018 it was announced that Jarrett-Macauley was included in the

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

edition of the Powerlist, ranking the 100 most influential Black Britons. Jarrett-Macauley has also edited ''Shakespeare, Race and Performance: The Diverse Bard in Contemporary Britain'' (June 2016), with contributors who include

Eldred Durosimi Jones Professor Eldred Durosimi Jones (6 January 1925 – 21 March 2020)''Africa Who's Who'', London: Africa Journal for Africa Books Ltd, 1981, p. 537. was a Sierra Leonean academic and literary critic, known for his book ''Othello's Countrymen: A Stud ...

Jatinder Verma Jatinder Verma, MBE (born 1954), is a British theatre director and activist, who in 1977 co-founded the British Asian theatre company Tara Arts, leading it as artistic director.Bosanquet, Theo (15 January 2020)"Big Interviews: Jatinder Verma" ''Th ...

, Naseem Khan,

Dawn Monique Williams Dawn Monique Williams (born July 2, 1978) is an American theatre director. She was born in Oakland, California, United States, and is a graduate of California State University, Hayward (BA Theatre Arts, 2003), San Francisco State University (MA D ...

, Michael Pearce, Lynette Goddard, Varsha Panjwani, Jami Rogers,

Michael McMillan Michael McMillan (born 1962) is a British playwright, artist, curator and educator, born in England to parents who were migrants from St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG).Pat Cumper, Sita Thomas, and Terri Power. In 2016 Jarrett-Macauley was on the

London Book Fair The London Book Fair (LBF) is a large book-publishing trade fair held annually, usually in April, in London, England. LBF is a global marketplace for rights negotiation and the sale and distribution of content across print, audio, TV, film and di ...

delegation to China, where she spoke at The Shanghai International Book Fair and at various events in Beijing, including the Beijing Book Fair's Cultural Industries Forum. She was also filmed for the

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh la ...

's "Walking the cities" series in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Writing

Jarrett-Macauley has written two significant books: ''The Life of Una Marson, 1905–65'' (first published in 1998) and the novel ''Moses, Citizen & Me'' (2005).

''The Life of Una Marson, 1905–65''

She is the author of a well received biography of the BBC's first black programme-maker,

Una Marson Una Maud Victoria Marson (6 February 1905 – 6 May 1965) was a Jamaican feminist, activist and writer, producing poems, plays and radio programmes. She travelled to London in 1932 and became the first black woman to be employed by the BBC ...

. Chris Searle, reviewing it in ''

Tribune Tribune () was the title of various elected officials in ancient Rome. The two most important were the tribunes of the plebs and the military tribunes. For most of Roman history, a college of ten tribunes of the plebs acted as a check on the ...

'' wrote: "Delia Jarrett-Macauley is to be congratulated in creating this finely written, detailed, narrative which opens up black life from an era often untouched by the written word". Margaret Busby referred to it in ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, wh ...

'' as "compelling", with other appreciative feedback coming from Stewart Brown of the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingha ...

("thoroughly researched and well documented"), Caroline Benn ("An excellent biography"), John Thieme of the

University of Hull , mottoeng = Bearing the Torch f learning, established = 1927 – University College Hull1954 – university status , type = Public , endowment = £18.8 million (2016) , budget = £190 millio ...

("A work of sustained and original scholarship"),

Hakim Adi Hakim Adi is a British historian and scholar who specializes in African affairs. He is the first African-British historian to become a professor of history in the UK. He has written widely on Pan-Africanism and the modern political history of ...

("Delia Jarrett-Macauley has done a great service"), Kevin Le Gendre for the ''

Independent on Sunday ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' ("genuinely inspiring"), Sheila Rowbotham ("a scholarly work, deftly written"), while Stuart Hall praised it as "a significant contribution to the work of historical memory".

''Moses, Citizen & Me''

Jarrett-Macauley's 2005 novel takes as its subject matter the conflict in Sierra Leone, drawing imaginatively on "both the European canon and African oral traditions to illuminate the sufferings of child soldiers and their families"."Moses, Citizen and Me"
Delia Jarrett-Macauley website. The book was widely and positively reviewed, including by such as Aminatta Forna ("A deeply affecting and vividly told story of ordinary people with the courage to survive.... A wonderful book"),

Bernardine Evaristo Bernardine Anne Mobolaji Evaristo, (born 28 May 1959) is a British author and academic. Her novel '' Girl, Woman, Other'', jointly won the Booker Prize in 2019 alongside Margaret Atwood's '' The Testaments'', making her the first woman with Bla ...

in ''

Wasafiri ''Wasafiri'' is a quarterly British literary magazine covering international contemporary writing. Founded in 1984, the magazine derives its name from a Swahili word meaning "travellers" that is etymologically linked with the Arabic word " safari ...

'' ("This is a very serious and significant choice of subject matter for a debut novel; ambitiously rendered, it proves fertile and potent ground for fiction."),

Francis Wheen Francis James Baird Wheen (born 22 January 1957) is a British journalist, writer and broadcaster. Early life and education Wheen was born into an army familyNicholas Wro"A life in writing" ''The Guardian'', 29 August 2009 and educated at two ind ...

("An extraordinary novel about war, childhood, art and salvation. Shakespearean tragedy recast in modern Africa, transformed into a redemptive vision as magical as a midsummer night's dream."), while

Lucy Beresford Lucy Beresford is an English broadcaster, presenter, novelist, and psychotherapist. Biography Beresford has an M.A. in Psychotherapy awarded by the City University, London, and an Advanced Diploma in Integrative Psychotherapy, having studied fo ...

remarked in '' The Literary Review'': "...her understated prose a foil to the bleak and disturbing subject matter. ...sensitively establishes the family as a microcosm of the ruptured nation.... and Shakespeare provides an inspirational and uplifting agent of therapy." In the ''

Guardian Guardian usually refers to: * Legal guardian, a person with the authority and duty to care for the interests of another * ''The Guardian'', a British daily newspaper (The) Guardian(s) may also refer to: Places * Guardian, West Virginia, Unite ...

'', Ali Smith commented on "the considered and multi-layered story of a Sierra Leone family blasted apart by one of its children turning boy soldier in the civil war. It is a novel remarkable for its slowed, measured pulse and its calm analysis, its keenness to promise hope and rehabilitation even after the worst", and Maya Jaggi wrote : "Seven years ago Delia Jarrett-Macauley published The Life of Una Marson 1906-65, a landmark biography of the Jamaican feminist who became the BBC's first black programme maker. In her debut novel, Jarrett-Macauley again breaks ground with a delicate and brave, if over-ambitious, fictional treatment of child soldiers in the aftermath of a west African civil war....as a deftly sensitive exploration of a tormented generation, and a family's dilemma, it is a haunting piece of fiction." ''Moses, Citizen & Me'' was awarded the

in 2006, with the judges concluding: "It is a work of great intimacy and moral complexity, the kind of writing that sheds light on a world we barely understand...the book is one that

Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitari ...

himself might have liked." In 2008, following the publication of '' A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier'', a bestselling first-hand account by

Ishmael Beah Ishmael Beah (born 23 November 1980)UNICEF''Youth leadership profiles'' unicef.org; retrieved 15 February 2007. is a Sierra Leonean author and human rights activist who rose to fame with his acclaimed memoir, '' A Long Way Gone''. His novel ''Ra ...

of his time as a child soldier during the civil war in Sierra Leone in the 1990s, the accuracy of which was questioned, there was also some discussion about the memoir's alleged similarity in parts to Jarrett-Macauley's novel.

Broadcasting

Jarrett-Macauley has worked on a number of broadcasting projects for

, including devising and presenting ''The Una Marson Story'' (

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also featuring. The st ...

) and ''Black Women Writers in 1930s England'' on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of Talk radio, spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history fro ...

. In 2006 she made the Radio 4 feature ''Imaginary Homeland'', for which she returned to Sierra Leone after 30 years, and the programme "interweaves her memories and her fiction with the real struggle to rebuild the place known as Salone". She has also contributed to other BBC programmes such as ''

Woman's Hour ''Woman's Hour'' is a radio magazine programme broadcast in the United Kingdom on the BBC Light Programme, BBC Radio 2, and later BBC Radio 4. It has been on the air since 1946. History Created by Norman Collins and originally presented by ...

'' and ''

Open Book Open book may refer to: Books and publishing * ''An Open Book'' (poems), a collection by Orson Scott Card * Open access books * PEN/Open Book, a program fostering diversity in publishing * ''An Open Book'', an autobiography by Monica Dickens * ...

'' on Radio 4, the Radio 3 website on Ideas and Culture and the 2004 BBC Music Live Festival. She voiced ''Warrior Marks'',

Alice Walker Alice Malsenior Tallulah-Kate Walker (born February 9, 1944) is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, and social activist. In 1982, she became the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, which she was awa ...

's documentary film, which was shown on UK television (based on the 1993 book of the same title about

female genital mutilation Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female genital cutting, female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and female circumcision, is the ritual cutting or removal of some or all of the external female genitalia. The practice is found ...

). In 2022,

Lenny Henry Sir Lenworth George Henry (born 29 August 1958) is a British actor, comedian, singer, television presenter and writer. Henry gained success as a stand-up comedian and impressionist in the late 1970s and early 1980s, culminating in '' The Le ...

's production company, Douglas Road Productions, made a television documentary entitled ''Una Marson, Our Lost Caribbean Voice'', broadcast on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream ...

, in which Jarrett-Macauley asks: "How could we have let someone of Una Marson's calibre just disappear?"

Bibliography

* ''The Life of Una Marson, 1905–65'',

Manchester University Press Manchester University Press is the university press of the University of Manchester, England and a publisher of academic books and journals. Manchester University Press has developed into an international publisher. It maintains its links with t ...

(1998, 2010), . * ''Moses, Citizen & Me'' – novel,

Granta Books ''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and ma ...

(2005), . Winner of the Orwell Prize 2006. ; As editor * ''Reconstructing Womanhood, Reconstructing Feminism: Writings on Black Women'', Routledge (1996), . * ''Shakespeare, Race and Performance: The Diverse Bard in Contemporary Britain'',

Routledge Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, ...

(2016), .

References

External links

Official website.
* Dee Jarrett-Macauley
"Home Can Be a Terrifying Place"
''Bookslut'', September 2007. * Delia Jarrett-Macauley
"I'm Lonely, I'll make me a world"
Delia Jarrett-Macauley responds to the "Call & Responses - The Odyssey of the Moor" by Graeme Mortimer Evelyn, a site-specific contemporary art installation currently on show within The Queen's Gallery at Kensington Palace. Soundcloud. * Christine Wilde
"Telling Stories"
(interview), ''Overseas: The Journal of the Royal Over-Seas League'', Issue 706, June–August 2016, pp. 18–21. * Delia Jarrett-Macauley
"Rokel Dees"
Writers Mosaic. {{DEFAULTSORT:Jarrett-Macauley, Delia 20th-century biographers 20th-century British women writers 21st-century British novelists 21st-century British women writers Academics of Birkbeck, University of London Academics of the University of Leeds Alumni of the University of London Black British women academics Black British women writers British women novelists English people of Sierra Leonean descent 1958 births Living people People associated with the University of Warwick People of Sierra Leone Creole descent Writers from Hertfordshire