ROCKY CARR
brixton bwoy

A NOVEL

Copyright

First published in 1998 by

Fourth Estate

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

Copyright © 1998 Rocky Carr

The right of Rocky Carr to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

The publisher and the author would like to thank Patricia Salkey for permission to reproduce ‘A Song for England’ by her late husband, Andrew Salkey.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

Source ISBN: 9780007291458

Ebook Edition © FEBRUARY 2016 ISBN: 9780007393404

Version: 2016-01-12

Dedication

For my parents, andfor Jeremy and Judy

Epigraph

A Song for England

An a so de rain a-fall

An a so de snow a-rain

An a so de fog a-fall

An a so de sun a-fail

An a so de seasons mix

An a so de bag-o-tricks

But a so me understan

De misery o de Englishman.

Andrew Salkey

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Epigraph

1 – Ackee and Saltfish

2 – Fish and Chips in the Snow

3 – Brother Joe

4 – Brixton Front Line

5 – Doing Time

6 – Girlie

7 – Return to Jamaica

8 – Drape Up

About the Publisher