Join prize-winning writer Lisa Smith as she presents her novel Jamaica Road, a tender and powerful exploration of love, identity, and belonging in 1980s South London.

South London, 1981: Daphne is the only Black girl in her class. All she wants is to keep her head down, preferably in a book. The easiest way to survive is to go unnoticed.

Daphne's attempts at invisibility are upended when a boy named Connie Small arrives from Jamaica. Connie is the opposite of small in every way: lanky, outgoing, and unapologetically himself. Daphne tries to keep her distance, but Connie is magnetic, and they form an intense bond.

As they navigate growing up in a volatile, rapidly changing city, their families become close, and their friendship begins to shift into something more complicated. But when Connie reveals that he is 'nuh land' - meaning he's in England illegally - Daphne realises that she is dangerously entangled in Connie's fragile home life.

The winner of the 2017 Guardian 4th Estate BAME Short Story Prize and the Pat Kavanagh Prize will present her masterful writing and transport you to a pivotal moment in London's history through the eyes of her vivid and multifaceted characters.

Join us for an intimate conversation alongside writer Eleanor Shearer about growing up between cultures, the complexities of British-Jamaican identity, and the power of community in the face of social change.