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Ferdinand Dennis

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Ferdinand Dennis
FRSL
Born(1956-03-18)18 March 1956(age 68)[1]
Kingston, Jamaica
EducationLeicester University(1975–78);
Birkbeck College,London University(1978–79)
Occupation(s)Writer, journalist and broadcaster
Notable workBehind the Frontlines: Journey into Afro-Britain(1988);
The Sleepless Summer(1989);
The Last Blues Dance(1996);
Duppy Conqueror(1998)
Awards1988 Martin Luther King Memorial Prize

Ferdinand DennisFRSL(born 18 March 1956)[2]is a writer, broadcaster, journalist and lecturer, who isJamaicanby birth but at the age of eight moved toEngland,where his parents had migrated in the late 1950s.[3]Dr James Procter notes: "Perhaps as a result of hisCaribbeanbackground (a region probably marked more than any other by movements and migration), Dennis is a writer ultimately more concerned with routes than roots. This is foregrounded in much of his fictional work, notably his most recent and ambitious novel to date,Duppy Conqueror(1998), a novel which moves from 1930s Jamaica to postwar London andLiverpool,to Africa. Similarly, Dennis' non-fiction centres on journeying rather than arrival, fromBehind the Frontlines: Journey into Afro-Britain(1988) toVoices of the Crossing: The Impact of Britain on Writers from Asia, the Caribbean and Africa(2000). "[2]

Biography[edit]

Ferdinand Dennis was born inKingston, Jamaica,[4]and grew up innorth Paddington,London,[5]where he and his siblings – two brothers and a sister – relocated in 1964 to join their parents.[3]

Dennis read sociology atLeicester University(1975–78),[2][6]after which he was employed as an educational researcher inHandsworth,Birmingham.[7][8]He studied for a master's degree atBirkbeck College,London University(1978–79).[2][6]In 1991 he was made Honorary Research Fellow at Birkbeck.[4]He received a Wingate Scholarship in 1995.[9]He has lectured inNigeria,and from 2003 to 2011 taught Creative and Media Writing courses atMiddlesex University.[10]

As a broadcaster, he has written and presented numerous talks and documentaries forBBC Radio 4[11]– such as the seriesAfter Dread and Anger(1989),[12]Journey Round My People,for which he travelled in West Africa,Back To Africa(1990)[13][14]andWork Talk(1991–92; conversations with black people living in Britain, includingDiane Abbott,Valerie Amos,Emeka Anyaoku,Norman Beaton,Winston Branch,Margaret Busby,Merle Collins,Val McCalla,andJosette Simon,produced byMarina Salandy-Brown)[15]– as well as a television programme about Africa forChannel 4.

Dennis has also worked as a journalist for publications includingFrontlineandCity Limitsmagazines.[2]His writing has been published in a range of magazines, newspapers and anthologies, among themThe Guardian,[16]Granta,[17]Critical Quarterly,[18]Black British Culture and Society: A Text Reader(ed.Kwesi Owusu,2000),Hurricane Hits England: An Anthology of Writing About Black Britain(ed.Onyekachi Wambu,2000), andIC3: The Penguin Book of New Black Writing in Britain(2000).[19]

WithNaseem Khan,Dennis co-editedVoices of the Crossing: The Impact of Britain on Writers from Asia, the Caribbean and Africa(2000). He also was a co-researcher (withKole Omotosoand Alfred Zack-Williams) of the 1992 compilationWest Africa Over 75 Years: selections from the raw material of history,edited by Kaye Whiteman.

Dennis is the author of three novels –The Sleepless Summer(1989),The Last Blues Dance(1996); andDuppy Conqueror(1998) – and two travelogues:Behind the Frontlines: Journey into Afro-Britain(1988) – his first book, which won theMartin Luther King Memorial Prize– andBack to Africa: A Journey(1992), in which he visitedCameroon,Ghana,Guinea,Sierra Leone,Liberia,NigeriaandSenegal.In 2021, his collection of short stories written over five decades,The Black and White Museum,came out from HopeRoad Publishers.[20]

Dennis was elected to the management committee of theSociety of Authorsin October 2017, to serve for a three-year term.[21][22]

Critical reception[edit]

Dennis's first novel,The Sleepless Summer(1989), is said to enjoy "cult status in Britain's African-Caribbean community",[23]while his second,The Last Blues Dance(1996), is described as "Warm, humorous, poignant... a wonderfully engaging novel that weaves together the lives of a rich cast of characters, creating a sense of both community and individuality, tenderness and suspense."[23]

In praise of 1998'sDuppy Conqueror,World Literature Todaysaid:

"Ferdinand Dennis is faultless in his depiction of artifacts, customs, speech, and behavior in the three continents of Marshall's adventures; his descriptions of the externals and his analyses of the internal motivations of his characters–both minor and principal–are quite arresting, whether he is writing about 'the unintended arrogance of the shy person' or commenting on 'love that came without duty and expired without money, leaving a rancid odour of guilt.' Duppy Conqueroris neither abildungsromannor a political treatise, though it shares some of the elements of both subgenres; it is almost a fictional biography of a sixty-year-old thinking proletarian searching for racial and ideological roots. Some readers will read Dennis's novel as aroman a clef,others as a contemporary version ofClaude McKay'sBanana BottomandHome to Harlemextended to Africa; but few will read it without admiration and considerable satisfaction. "[24]

Other favourable coverage came fromThe Times Higher Education:"This very ambitious novel is nothing less than a history of the twentieth century, seen though Afro-Caribbean spectacles... Framed as a postcolonial picaresque, it has a hurtling energy which raises it above Dennis's previous work. Finally, and most importantly, Duppy Conqueror brims with humour and low comedy. It is a pleasing change from the wilfully ponderous treatment of historical memory and diasporic identity in much contemporary postcolonial fiction."[25]According toThe Independent′s Rachel Halliburton: "Duppy Conquerorpresents a giant's eye view of the exiled African psyche. An ambitious and compelling novel.... This is a novel packed to the brim with layers of symbolism, individual and cultural memories, and fascinating historical stories. Reading it once just won't be enough. "[26]

CallingVoices of the Crossing(2000) "a fine anthology of 14 memoirs by writers from Africa, the Caribbean, India and Pakistan" (E. A. Markham,Attia Hosain,Beryl Gilroy,John Figueroa,David Dabydeen,Mulk Raj Anand,Dom Moraes,Buchi Emecheta,Rukhsana Ahmad,G. V. Desani,Homi Bhabha,James Berry,Farrukh DhondyandNirad Chaudhuri), theNew StatesmanreviewerRobert Winderwrote: "...the memoirs in this book, while not the major works of any of the writers concerned, might be as significant as their more ambitious work.... They are more direct, eye-opening tributes to the spirited resolve that underpins all literature, not just 'colonial' literature."[27]

On the publication of his 2021 bookThe Black and White Museum,Margaret Busbydescribed Dennis as "[a] writer inspired by the idea and realities of Africa and the African diaspora, which he has explored in novels, short stories and travelogues, creating a unique body of work that deserves greater recognition",[20]whileMaya Jaggi's review inThe Guardiansaid that the collection "confirms Ferdinand Dennis as a flâneur and urban philosopher exploring territory he first began to map in his now classic novels."[28]Amidst other favourable critical attention,Gary Youngecharacterised Dennis as "an elegant writer, both in fiction and non-fiction, who deftly weaves the tales of the diaspora into his work", whileYvonne Brewsternoted: "Dennis does not disappoint... Riveting sensitive snapshots of inner city London life."[20]

Bibliography[edit]

Novels
  • 1989:The Sleepless Summer,Hodder & Stoughton.ISBN978-0340502822
  • 1996:The Last Blues Dance,HarperCollins.ISBN978-0006497837
  • 1998:Duppy Conqueror,Flamingo.ISBN978-0006497844.
  • 2021:The Black and White Museum(short stories), Hope Road, paperbackISBN9781913109837
Non-fiction
As editor

Awards and recognition[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^Aatkar, Sofia,"Ferdinand Dennis",The Literary Encyclopedia,17 October 2016.
  2. ^abcdef"Ferdinand Dennis"Archived18 May 2015 at theWayback Machine,British Council,Literature Matters.
  3. ^abFerdinand Dennis,"My father's island",The Guardian,10 June 2000.
  4. ^abFerdinand Dennis author page,HarperCollins.
  5. ^"Postmark Notting Hill: Running Down The Hill",Marxism Today,September 1988, p. 9.
  6. ^abFerdinand DennisatLinkedIn.
  7. ^Handsworth Alternative Scheme.
  8. ^Ferdinand Dennis,"Birmingham: Blades of Frustration"(fromBeyond the Frontlines), in Kwesi Owusu (ed.),Black British Culture and Society: A Text Reader,p. 195.
  9. ^"Mr Ferdinand Dennis",Wingate Scholarships.
  10. ^Patsy Hickman,"Following the Writer's Flame",National Association of Writers in Education (NAWE).
  11. ^Conference Contributors,NAWE, 2010.
  12. ^"After Dread and Anger",BBC Radio 4.
  13. ^"Back To Africa",Radio Listings.
  14. ^"Dear Mr. Ferdinand Dennis...",English 10: Writing Portfolio, Catholic Memorial High School, 2006–2007.
  15. ^"Work Talk",Radio Listings.
  16. ^Ferdinand Dennis,"The choice of a new generation...",The Guardian,19 August 2000.
  17. ^Ferdinand Dennis page,Granta.
  18. ^F. Dennis (1999),"The Black and White Museum",Critical Quarterly,41: 28–34. doi: 10.1111/1467-8705.00259. Wiley Online Library, 24 January 2003.
  19. ^"IC3: the Penguin book of new black writing in Britain",WorldCat.
  20. ^abc"The Black and White Museum".HopeRoad.
  21. ^"Mary Hoffman, David Donachie, Philip Womack and Ferdinand Dennis elected to the Management Committee",The Society of Authors, 2017.
  22. ^Katherine Cowdrey,"Dennis, Hoffman and Womack join SoA management committee",The Bookseller,17 October 2017.
  23. ^ab"The Last Blues Dance"[permanent dead link],Kentake Page.
  24. ^A. L. McLeod,Review ofDuppy Conqueror,World Literature Today,22 June 1999. The Free Library.
  25. ^"Paradise, Jamaica",Times Higher Education,29 June 1998.
  26. ^Rachel Halliburton,"The road out of Paradise",The Independent,19 September 1998.
  27. ^Robert Winder,"The longest journey. Post-imperial writing is suffused by a sense of exile and loss. But what the authors have most in common is the pursuit of individual freedom...",New Statesman,13 March 2000.
  28. ^Jaggi, Maya (17 December 2021)."Book of the day | The Black and White Museum by Ferdinand Dennis review – city snapshots".The Guardian.
  29. ^Shaffi, Sarah; Knight, Lucy (12 July 2022)."Adjoa Andoh, Russell T Davies and Michaela Coel elected to Royal Society of Literature".The Guardian.ISSN0261-3077.Retrieved23 June2023.

Further reading[edit]

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