Holden Lecture highlights Senate House Library’s unique Caribbean Collections
Hosted by the Friends of Senate House Library, the annual Holden Lecture focuses on one of the Library’s Special Collections. This year, we were pleased to welcome Professor Alison Donnell to speak on how women writers became the lost voices of the Caribbean.
The event, entitled Careless Whispers and Broken Records: How We Lost Mid-Century Caribbean Women Writers, highlighted the Library’s unique Caribbean Collections, which are of significant value to research and scholarship, and can be explored in the current exhibition In the Grip of Change: the Caribbean and its British Diaspora.
Alison Donnell is Head of the School of Humanities and Professor of Modern Literatures in English at the University of Bristol. She has published widely on Anglophone Caribbean literature, with significant contributions to the fields of literary history and culture, recovery research of women authors and Caribbean literary archives.
Addressing guests at the start of the Lecture, Professor Donnell said,
I am honoured to give this Lecture… to be part of a tradition honouring Senate House Library and honouring libraries as vital knowledge institutions and sites of educational transformation. Libraries have been essential to my career as an academic and also as a Caribbeanist.
During the lecture, Professor Donnell presented some of her research which uncovers the work of talented female authors, including Guyanese writer, journalist and politician Edwina Melville, and Monica Skeete, Grenadian writer and history teacher. Monica is no stranger to the University, being an alumna of King’s College, University of London, and some of her work is held in Senate House Library.
Professor Donnell explained that these authors’ work was broadcast on the BBC’s Caribbean Voices radio programme in the 1950s. However, they were denied the success of their male counterparts, V.S. Naipaul and Derek Walcott, with their work being largely forgotten and ignored in the critical landscape.
Professor Donnell concluded by saying,
As we make choices about who to read, who to write about, who to teach, who to anthologise, who to include in our bibliographies, who to purchase for our libraries, we’re shaping the future of the literary past and we also have the opportunity to refuse the narrow shaping of the prototype writer or the literary publisher, to expand that past and to recognise its other mid-century Caribbean in our histories to come.
You can view a video of the Lecture on the Library's YouTube channel: Careless whispers and broken records: how we lost mid-century Caribbean women writers
The Library’s Caribbean Collections can be explored in its current exhibition In the Grip of Change: the Caribbean and its British diaspora, which runs until 28 March 2025. Entry is free.
Find out more about the exhibition
A selection of anglophone Caribbean literature is on display on the fourth floor of the Library until the end of January 2025. Purchased with funding from the Convocation Trust, the books are a mixture of novels, short stories, and poetry, and can be borrowed by Library members. The funding has allowed us to develop the collection, and more titles will be added to the Library throughout the next few months.
Join the Friends of Senate House Library
The Friends of Senate House Library support the Library and run a programme of events over the academic year. Membership of the Friends entitles you to free or discounted admission for these events. Learn more and join the Friends.
Watch a video of the event
This page was last updated on 30 January 2025