All of us at the Bocas Lit Fest are deeply saddened to hear of the death of Sarah White (1941–2022), co-founder of New Beacon Books with her partner John La Rose, and a true and practical friend to generations of Caribbean writers, artists, and activists.
White was the co-recipient of the first Bocas Henry Swanzy Award in 2013 — alongside her late partner — and it was a delight and an honour to host her at our festival that year, where she gave a memorable talk about the history of New Beacon Books. Founded in 1966 as the first Caribbean publishing house in the United Kingdom, New Beacon later expanded into a landmark bookshop in Finsbury Park, where it now shares premises with the associated George Padmore Institute. Threatened more than once in recent years by declining sales, the physical bookshop was saved by a crowdfunding campaign in December 2021 supported by many Caribbean and Black British writers and readers.
Over a half-century span, New Beacon published works by writers such as John Jacob Thomas, Marcus Garvey, C.L.R. James, Wilson Harris, Andrew Salkey, Errol Hill, Dennis Scott, Erna Brodber, Mervyn Morris, and others, and the bookshop has long been considered an epicentre of Caribbean literary and intellectual life in the United Kingdom. Sarah White was also associated with the groundbreaking Caribbean Artists Movement in the 1960s onwards, and was a co-founder of the International Book Fairs of Radical Black and Third World Books, which ran from 1982 to 1995.
“In a very tangible way, the work we do at the Bocas Lit Fest would not be possible without the tireless and devoted efforts of predecessors like Sarah White and John La Rose,” says Bocas Lit Fest festival and programme director Nicholas Laughlin. “A thriving literary culture needs creative imagination and ambition, obviously, but it also requires a great deal of unglamorous, steady work behind the scenes — writing letters and emails, balancing budgets and compiling accounts, updating catalogues, endless proofreading, even just the physical labour of keeping bookshelves regularly stocked. Sarah brought together the imaginative and the administrative elements, and was an example of both optimistic endurance and cheerful pragmatism.
“I met Sarah perhaps half a dozen times over the years, and I feel lucky to have enjoyed her company but also to have heard her stories and learned from her experience and insight. We mourn her loss now, but we must also remember to celebrate what she and John La Rose achieved, and we should be grateful to follow in their path — or, more aptly, to have followed their beacon.”
The Bocas Lit Fest team sends its condolences to Sarah White’s family and friends, her colleagues at New Beacon Books and the George Padmore Institute, and all in the Caribbean and Black British literary world who have benefitted from her life and work.