Cumper, Patricia 1954-

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CUMPER, Patricia 1954-

PERSONAL: Born 1954, in Jamaica. Education: Attended Girton College, Cambridge.

ADDRESSES: Home—England. Agent—c/o Author Mail, BlackAmber Books, 3 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AU, England.

CAREER: Writer. British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC World Service, script writer for Westway (soap opera).

AWARDS, HONORS: Jamaica scholarship, 1973; Race in the Media Award for Best Radio Drama, Commission for Racial Equality, 1997, for One Bright Child.

WRITINGS:

One Bright Child (radio play), British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Radio 4, 1997.

One Bright Child (novel; based on Cumper's radio play), BlackAmber (London, England), 1998.

Author of plays for theatre and radio as well as book reviews for BBC World Service.

SIDELIGHTS: Patricia Cumper first wrote about her mother's adolescence and young adulthood in Jamaica and England in a radio play titled One Bright Child, which aired on British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Radio 4. She then turned the play into a fictionalized memoir with the same title. Cumper's mother, Gloria, moved from Jamaica to England in 1936 at the age of thirteen to attend grammar school in London. Gloria went on to become the first black female graduate of Girton College, Cambridge. Gloria eventually married a white man and soon faced a variety of racial issues and tensions in an era of prejudice that took place long before the mass migration of Caribbean people to Great Britain. In the novel, the "character" Gloria spends time at an English grammar school and a boarding house for ladies. She decides she wants to become a lawyer, but must return to the Caribbean because of the approach of World War II. When Gloria returns to London she experiences the tough times of war rationing, and falls in love with a poor, working-class law student who is white. Although Gloria achieves her dream and graduates from college, she must face the controversy of a mixed marriage, which threatens her career until her husband's maiden Aunt Anne arrives on the scene to help.

Elizabeth Finlayson, writing in the School Librarian, commented that One Bright Child is "well written, even if the style is occasionally slightly clichéd." The reviewer went on to recommend the book, noting that the author "provides an insight into the racial climate" of the period. "It is a powerful evocation of the period," wrote David Self in the Times Educational Supplement, the critic going on to call the novel "an inspiring, heart-warming and loving story."