The Big Jubilee Read - 1982-1991

17 April 2022

Throughout this year of Platinum Jubilee celebrations, the BBC and The Reading Agency are celebrating 70 great books from across the Commonwealth. Read on to discover more about The Big Jubilee Read selections drawn from 1982 to 1991.

Schindler’s Ark

by Thomas Keneally (1982, Australia)

In the shadow of Auschwitz, a flamboyant German industrialist grew into a living legend to the Jews of Cracow. He was a womaniser, a heavy drinker and a bon viveur, but to them he became a saviour. Schindler’s Ark tells the extraordinary story of Oskar Schindler, who risked his life to protect Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland and who was transformed by the war into a man with a mission, a compassionate angel of mercy.

Based on real events, Keneally’s novel has become a canonical text of holocaust literature, and inspired Stephen Spielberg’s 1993 film Schindler’s List.

• World Book Club: Schindler's Ark (BBC World Service)

Beka Lamb

by Zee Edgell (1982, Belize)

Beka and her friend Toycie are on the threshold of change from childhood to adulthood. Their personal struggles and tragedies play out against a backdrop of political upheaval and regeneration as the British colony of Belize gears up for universal suffrage, and progression towards independence. The politics of the colony, the influence of the mixing of races in society, and the dominating presence of the Catholic Church are woven into the fabric of the story to provide a compelling portrait, 'a loving evocation of Belizean life and landscape'.

Set in Belize City in the early 1950s, Beka Lamb records a few months in the life of Beka and her family.

The Bone People

by Keri Hulme (1984, New Zealand)

The Bone People is the story of Kerewin, a despairing part-Maori artist who is convinced that her solitary life is the only way to face the world. Her cocoon is rudely blown away by the sudden arrival of Simon, a mute six-year-old whose past seems to hold some terrible trauma. In his wake comes his foster-father Joe, a Maori factory worker with a nasty temper.

Winner of the Booker Prize in 1985, Hulme’s novel is a huge, ambitious work that tackles the clash between Maori and European characters in beautiful prose of a heartrending poignancy.

The Handmaid’s Tale

by Margaret Atwood (1985, Canada)

Offred is a Handmaid in The Republic of Gilead, a religious totalitarian state in what was formerly known as the United States. She is placed in the household of The Commander, Fred Waterford - her assigned name, Offred, means 'of Fred'. She has only one function: to breed. If Offred refuses to enter into sexual servitude to repopulate a devastated world, she will be hanged. Yet even a repressive state cannot eradicate hope and desire. As she recalls her pre-revolution life in flashbacks, Offred must navigate through the terrifying landscape of torture and persecution in the present day, and between two men upon which her future hangs.

Masterfully conceived and executed, this haunting vision of the future places Margaret Atwood at the forefront of dystopian fiction.

• Meridian - Margaret Atwood on her novel The Handmaid's Tale (BBC World Service)

Summer Lightning

by Olive Senior (1986, Jamaica)

Summer Lightning is the first collection of short stories from one of Jamaica's most exciting creative talents. Senior’s setting is rural Jamaica; her heroes are the naïve and the vulnerable, who bring to life with power and realism issues such as snobbery, ambition, jealousy, faith and love.

Written in vivid, colourful detail, these rich compelling stories recreate with sensitivity and wit a whole range of emotions, from childhood hope to brooding melancholy. Each is told with an affectionate and poignant perception of you and I at our best and worst.

• The Arts Hour - Nikki Bedi is joined by Jamaica’s Poet Laureate Olive Senior (BBC World Service)

The Whale Rider

by Witi Ihimaera (1987, New Zealand)

The birth of a daughter - Kahu - breaks the lineage of a Maori tribe. When she is rejected by her grandfather, Kahu develops the ability to communicate with whales, echoing those of the ancient Whale Rider after whom she was named.

This magical and mythical novel tells of the conflict between tradition and heritage, and of Kahu's destiny to secure the tribe's future.

• World Book Club: Prominent Maori writer Witi Ihimaera talks to Harriett Gilbert about The Whale Rider (BBC World Service)

The Remains of the Day

by Kazuo Ishiguro (1989, England)

In the summer of 1956, Stevens, the ageing butler of Darlington Hall, embarks on a leisurely holiday that will take him deep into the countryside and into his past. His journey forces him to confront the choices he has made, both in his professional life, and in his relationship with his former housekeeper Miss Kenton.

A contemporary classic, The Remains of the Day is Kazuo Ishiguro’s beautiful and haunting evocation of life between the wars in a Great English House.

• Book Club - James Naughtie talks to Kazuo Ishiguro about The Remains of the Day (BBC Radio 4)

Omeros

by Derek Walcott (1990, Saint Lucia)

A poem in five books, with a circular narrative design, Walcott’s text charts two currents of history: the visible account of the tribal losses of the American Indian and the tragedy of African enslavement, and the interior, unwritten epic fashioned from the suffering of the individual in exile.

Taking its title from the Greek name for Homer, Walcott revisits the classic tales of the Iliad and the Odyssey, retelling them from a 20th Century Caribbean perspective.

• World Book Club - Nobel laureate Derek Walcott discusses his epic poem Omeros (BBC World Service)

The Adoption Papers

by Jackie Kay (1991, Scotland)

Jackie Kay tells the story of a black girl's adoption by a white Scottish couple from three different viewpoints: the mother, the birth mother, and the daughter.

This collection of poems – written while Kay was tracing her own birth mother – explores the feeling of living a double life that being an adopted child can bring.

• Desert Island Discs - Kirsty Young interviews Jackie Kay, writer and Scotland's Makar (BBC Radio 4)

Cloudstreet

by Tim Winton (1991, Australia)

After two separate catastrophes, two families – the Pickles and Lambs – flee to the city and find themselves thrown together and forced to start their lives afresh. Their new home - No. 1 Cloudstreet – is a broken-down house on the wrong side of the tracks, and a place teeming with memories, with shudders and shadows and spirits.

As the families roister and rankle, the place that began as a roof over their heads becomes a home for their hearts.

• World Book Club - Tim Winton discusses his novel Cloudstreet (BBC World Service)