She traveled to Jamaica in 1989 and upon returning to London, she was moved to write her first novel. With this immigration, Levy developed a curiosity of her parents’ homeland (Gerard). More black people began to immigrate to London. For a while, she began to take a day off of work to focus on her writing career (Lima).

In 1988, Levy participated in an advanced writing workshop at the City Literary Institute.

As she grew to know the world around her, her “growing political awareness drew Levy to literature.” As she read Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, and Maya Angelou, she searched for a similar black female voice in British literature. Levy attended Middlesex Polytechnic for textile design and weaving and graduated in 1978. It was while studying in college that Levy began to realize the racial hierarchies at play in London (Younge). She is what many to believe the model for what immigrant families strive to achieve (Gerard). They didn't want to try our rice and peas.” Yet, Levy persevered through this to discover her academic voice and do well in grammar school. In an article entitled “This is my England,” Levy states that fellow students “didn't want to know about the sun, the sugar cane, the rum punch. At times, she was embarrassed to be Jamaican. When Levy began her schooling experience, she was taught to be English. Her father was among the first wave of Jamaican migrants to arrive in England on the SS Windrush in 1948 and her mother soon joined (Lima). This complexity is evidenced in her myriad writings which fuse her reality and the art of fiction. According to her personal website, this has “given her a complex perspective on the country of her birth” (“Biography”). Born in 1956 in London, she was thrust into a world of racism growing up black in white England. Andrea Levy’s pieces of writing are emblematic of who she is and her background.

The long song by andrea levy summary