1 month ago
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It takes only three minutes into a conversation with Yvonne Bailey-Smith to know, without a shadow of a doubt, that her daughter, acclaimed author Zadie Smith, is her pride and joy, and she would go to any lengths to give her a delightful surprise. And that’s exactly what she did when she recently popped up unexpectedly at the launch of Calabash 2025 at Devon House to introduce her daughter, who was scheduled to read from her latest novel, The Fraud. No one was more surprised than Zadie.
“She had no idea that I was in the country ... until she saw me here,” Bailey-Smith told The Sunday Gleaner, still patting herself on the shoulder for pulling off a brilliant cloak-and-dagger appearance.
“I booked a ticket, and I knew I could hide it for a while. She was in Japan until the Saturday before coming to Jamaica, and she came to my house on the Sunday. She was very excited about coming to Jamaica. She was like ‘Mummy, I’m going to be doing something with Professor Carolyn Cooper, and I’m going to be hanging out with Marlon James.’ and I said, ‘Oh! That’s really nice!’ And I was so excited,” an amused Bailey-Smith shared.
Smith asked her mother if she wanted her to go and visit any relatives, and, of course, what she wanted her to take back from Jamaica.
“I said, just bring me back some Jamaican honey, and that’s where we left it. Then I had to get her brothers to keep the secret, and I told as few people as possible. I told Carolyn, of course .... but Carolyn couldn’t tell anybody on the Calabash team because we didn’t want it to slip out,” she said.
Smith’s reaction to seeing her mother in the flesh, introducing her on stage at the launch of Calabash 2025, was priceless.
“She was ... How? When? Total shock,” Bailey-Smith recalled. “She is such a delightful daughter to have. She’s my only daughter, and she is gorgeous ... my sons are also gorgeous. One of the things about my daughter is that she has made such a difference to me and my entire family’s life. She is kind, she is generous beyond belief, and because of her, I move around the world very freely. I have visited 100 countries because she has enabled that in her generosity. I work and I am a very independent woman, but she has just been a very incredible human being. Not just to her family, but to her friends ... she has put [some] through university and goodness knows what else. And she is a very down-to-earth young woman. And she has a very beautiful family of her own, and I love her to death.”
‘Love’ is a word Bailey-Smith, a psychotherapist, uses freely when talking about Zadie, and her entire being lights up as animated expressions of love and deep emotions meet in harmony.
“I love her,” she reiterated. “From the day she was born, it was like there was something very special about her. And she loved learning. This is a child who I never once had to worry whether she was doing her homework. I love her so much. I love all my children ... but I am terribly proud of her. And I’m terribly proud as a girl who was born in a village with no roads ... I can’t believe that I have given birth to this young woman and that she has come back to love the Jamaica that I so love,” said Bailey-Smith, who is herself a published author.
She was 14 when she migrated to England as an unhappy teen because leaving her beloved island home was not in her books.
“I have always been a reader. I read anything I put my hands on. I wanted my children to be a part of this. And I used to give her books ... black literature, Zora Neale Hurston, but it would find its way back in my room, and then one day she picked it up and she read it and that was it ... she discovered black literature. When you live in England, you are going to discover white literature first,” Bailey-Smith said.
Her first novel, The Day I Fell off My Island, was published in 2021 to critical acclaim and made four short lists. Her second, a sequel, is now with her agent.
Bailey-Smith read at Calabash last year and returns this year. Treasure Beach in St Elizabeth, the home of Calabash, holds fond memories for Bailey-Smith, who was born in the Dalton district in the parish.
“That was the beach I played on as a child, but Treasure Beach was just a beach with lizards ... very different from what it is now. My grandmother would get her fish, and she would make her fish tea. And it was crazy ... 50-odd years later going back to be a reader at Calabash on that same beach. It was a moment... it was unbelievable,” the author said passionately.
Smith is an award-winning author of books White Teeth, her acclaimed first novel, and On Beauty. Other titles include: The Autograph Man, Swing Time, Intimations and The Fraud, her most recent adult novel.
Calabash, which takes place from May 23-25, will showcase a diverse line-up of authors, including four Booker Prize winners.
English (US) ·