Rachel Manley (born 1955) is a Jamaican writer in verse and prose, born in

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlan ...

, England, raised in

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispan ...

and currently (as of August 2020) residing in Canada. She is a daughter of the former Jamaican prime minister,

Michael Manley Michael Norman Manley (10 December 1924 – 6 March 1997) was a Jamaican politician who served as the fourth Prime Minister of Jamaica from 1972 to 1980 and from 1989 to 1992. Manley championed a democratic socialist program, and has been ...

. She was briefly married to George Albert Harley de Vere Drummond, father of the film director

Matthew Vaughn Matthew Allard de Vere Drummond (born Matthew Allard Robert Vaughn; 7 March 1971) is an English filmmaker. He has produced films including ''Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'' (1998) and '' Snatch'' (2000), and directed ''Layer Cake'' (2004 ...

. She edited her grandmother

Edna Manley Edna Swithenbank Manley, OM (28 February 1900 – 2 February 1987) is considered one of the most important artists and arts educators in Jamaica. She was known primarily as a sculptor although her oeuvre included significant drawings and pain ...

's diaries, which were published in 1989. She won the

Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction The Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction is a Canadian literary award that annually recognizes one Canadian writer for a non-fiction book written in English. Since 1987 it is one of fourteen Governor General's Awards for Litera ...

in 1997 for her memoir ''Drumblair: Memories of a Jamaican Childhood'' (1996). She has since published more memoirs and some volumes of verse. Her other biographical works include ''Horses in Her Hair: A Granddaughter's Story'' (2008), ''In My Father's Shade'' (2004) and ''Slipstream'' (2000). She published her first novel, ''The Black Peacock'', in 2017. The book was a shortlisted finalist for the 2018 Amazon.ca First Novel Award.

Selected bibliography

* ''A Light Left On'' (poetry), 1992 * ''Drumblair: Memories of a Jamaican Childhood'' (memoir), 1996 * ''Slipstream'' , 2000 * ''In My Father's Shade'', 2004 * ''Horses in Her Hair: A Granddaughter's Story'', 2008 * ''The Black Peacock'' (novel), 2017

Footnotes

1955 births 20th-century Canadian non-fiction writers 20th-century Canadian women writers 21st-century Canadian non-fiction writers 21st-century Canadian novelists 21st-century Canadian women writers British emigrants to Jamaica Canadian memoirists Canadian women memoirists Canadian women novelists Governor General's Award-winning non-fiction writers Jamaican emigrants to Canada Jamaican non-fiction writers Jamaican women writers Living people

Rachel Rachel () was a Biblical figure, the favorite of Jacob's two wives, and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, two of the twelve progenitors of the tribes of Israel. Rachel's father was Laban. Her older sister was Leah, Jacob's first wife. Her a ...

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