I&I The Natural Mystics: Lime Review

This is my book review of I&I The Natural Mystics as it appears in the March edition of Lime magazine. You can read that in the magazine online here.


I highlighted I&I The Natural Mystics in my hot tips piece on what to look out for in 2011. I am glad that I did, as mentioned then, I am not generally a reader of biographies, but I have to say that I recommend this book to you wholeheartedly. It is so much more than the story of The Wailers, whose music form the soundtrack to the lives of all British based-Caribbeans who grew up in Britain during the 70s and 80s.

The cornerstone of the book is the relationship between the three most famous Wailers. But this is also a book that answers questions about Jamaica that you weren't brave enough to ask of the relatives that you knew were in Jamaica during the formative years of the world famous group.

We know that The Wailers put Jamaica on the map, even in the remotest parts of Europe during the summer, you will often hear the plaintive voices and guitar riffs echoing against sounds of the sea.

Grant's book has provided a rich history to the island, he explains why the Rastafari became a strong alternative to the existing support systems; how the music promotion worked at that time and sets out the social and political currents that created and drove young men into the competitive music world in search of a better world. This is one of the most important books of 2011.


Black Reading Group summary of the discussion

We had a real treat with Colin Grant this afternoon (Sunday 27 February). He came along with a few friends that included his Uncle Viv, also an author, and a former manager of the roots reggae band The Abyssinians, both of whom had helped on the book as mentor and advisor about the reggae bands respectively. Colin started out by describing how the book was in fact three stories - the social history of Jamaica, the biography of the Wailers - which set out the how they came together, the growth of their spirituality and the embracing of Rastafari; and his own contemporary story of being in Jamaica researching the book. He revealed that at the point that he put the first draft of the book into the publishers, he had not yet met Bunny Wailer, who was essentially living a peaceful reclusive live in a remote part of the island.  They ended up meeting on the tour bus from Gatwick, as it travelled into London for a gig at the Brixton Ritzy. An eagle-eyed member of the Black Reading Group spotted that he was wearing the same shirt that he wore on the day that he met  Bunny - check out the picture on the back flap of the book. 

We discussed how what is now perceived as part of a cool Jamaica image - the home of reggae, that which sets it apart from the other islands, is something that with the rise of the Wailers,  powerful Jamaican elite abhorred. However by the end of the 70s you could not get a job in the University of the West Indies without being visibly identified as a follower of the Rastafari faith - even though of course those getting these jobs were of that same upper and middle class. 

Mention was also made of the fact that without The Wailers and their commitment to Rastafari we could not today have Rastamouse.

In terms of the world of publishing we discussed how hard it was get to reviews and then when a reviewer failed to understand the book you had to just let it go. Effectively treat the bad ones as the good ones. Colin explained that while he was happy with publishers Jonathan Cape's decision to take on the book and promote it, he particularly singled out Ellah Allfreys support in the original decision on this, the particular work of the review was to gain a tipping point of sales. It's effectively a combination of word of mouth and the people responding to the reviews that generates sales.  We failed miserably on identifying any other writer of non-fiction who was black - the others were either journalists of academics, and already had track records as writers, so they did not really count. So Colin is a pretty unique writer in the UK today. 

Colin's next book is a novel - a memoir set in 1972 about his Jamaican father and life in Hitchin, nr Luton. It is called Bageye at the Wheel - information here. It will be published next spring and we look forward to seeing him then.