the fridge, but adds: “Of course that gave absolutely no indication; it came as a bit of a shock when I felt the real thing!” Errol describes how in 1963 it was quite possible to be in an area of London where you were the only black person. “That was very strange – simply not seeing any black people around at all. There were cases in those days of colour prejudice, I don’t think it was recognised as a system like racism. Generally speaking, it wasn’t bad. There was a romantic idea of the Caribbean with Calypso. There was no National Front at this stage, so there was no organised antagonism.’
Discussing how he became interested in art, Errol remembers his brother giving him a book on Rembrandt and another on Rubens for his 21st birthday present. “There was a particular painting of a black
figure in the Rubens book which I really wanted to copy,” Errol explains. A friend saw his copy and bought it and they subsequently became flatmates. “I did a bust of him and he was very involved in politics.” This interest in politics would lead to Errol’s first opportunity to cast in bronze. “There was quite a famous Trinidadian called C L R James, he was a historian, a writer of fiction and generally a very brilliant man. They decided they would honour him by having a bronze bust made of him, so they raised money through public subscription.’ On the back of this Errol was commissioned for further busts including ones of cricketer Sir Garfield Sobers and for past Jamaican Prime Minister Sir William Alexander Bustamante.
The cost of bronze meant commissions were few and far between, leading Errol to develop his painting. “I joined a group of artists called the Caribbean Artists Movement and was there from the outset. It was an encouragement to produce works as we started to have exhibitions. It was also a great opportunity to meet other artists from the Caribbean. In Jamaica you don’t have that opportunity because it is so far to Trinidad and Barbados.” Some of Errol’s paintings were reproduced as greetings cards, a fact which brought them to the attention of publisher, The Bodley Head. They were publishing a story by Petronella Breinburg, My Brother Sean, and remembering Errol’s work approached him and asked if he’d be interested in illustrating it. “It was very difficult for me to do that. I was accustomed to doing big pieces. In order to do picturebooks you have to scale everything down. I suddenly found myself having to fit figures onto A4 sized pieces of paper. It turned out to be an advantage in a way that I couldn’t scale down very well because the approach I took turned out to be very dramatic and it fitted the story well.’
20 PEN&INC.
Errol was given advice by Judy Taylor, of The Bodley Head, to create a mock book to help plan how the book would work. Using photographs as a starting point, Errol sketched out his approach to the story. “I don’t always think illustrators are given enough credit for deciding which aspects of a story should be illustrated,” he says. “It is a bit like being a cross between an artist and a dramatist. If you think of a film, it’s a continuous presentation of imagery, but with a book you have to select which image you will freeze. I do think that is an art and at first one doesn’t always get it right.” My Brother Sean was a runner-up for the Kate Greenaway Medal and Errol says he didn’t realise how important the award was. “I had no idea what it was about at first,” he admits, “but you got the feeling
pretty soon it was something quite important. I was selected alongside a book by Raymond Briggs – Father Christmas. It was unfortunate in a way that I was up against that book. It was always going to be a winner because it is such a classic.”
Errol was pleased to be recognised for the award at a time when there was no pressure around creating books with black people or black art, and says: “It made a big difference to my prospects as an illustrator and eventually as a writer of children’s books. Libraries and schools really take account of the awards and it meant I got invited to do visits. The income from those often exceeds what royalties are, especially for those from a minority community where the demand is never going to be as large as for someone from the mainstream.”
Errol sees these library visits as particularly important because of the assumption a lot of children – and adults – have about the types of people who write books. “A lot of children think first of all that it is going to be middle class people who will be writing books and second, that it will be white middle class people. It has always been very good for black children to see black writers. If you are showing stories that include not just black children, but working class children, then you are empowering them. Children’s books can inform attitudes.”
Reflecting on whether being runner- up for the Kate Greenaway Medal led to greater opportunities, Errol describes how The Bodley Head was a pioneer, having already published Whistle for Willie by Ezra Jack featuring a black child, although not by a black author- illustrator. He says: “Bodley Head were at the forefront really – they also published a book by John Agard called Letters for Lettie which I created some black and white illustrations for. I think it took a while before publishers began to realise they could recover their costs by publishing books by black authors.” Errol’s first full-length novel was Many Rivers to Cross, a book which told the story of Sandra who travelled from Jamaica to rejoin her parents in England, overcoming many challenges – the rivers of the title – in so doing. “A lot of Caribbean writers were not actually writing about the immigrant experience. My wife’s story was very similar to Sandra’s. I think it’s a general kind of scenario where people are migrating. Almost invariably, somebody has to go along and set up resources before other members of the family join them. Most people just don’t have the money to have four or five members
Spring-Summer 2021
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