Climbing Up the Rough Side of the Mountain

Hundreds of people first attended the first West Indian Carnival held at Seymour Hall, London, in 1959. In this book you will meet some of those pioneers and share closely in their struggle to found a new life. This is, in particular, the autobiography of one of those young men. Although Sam King seems destined to grow up a farmer on the banana plantations of Jamaica, his social and intellectual interests seek a different fulfilment. In Britain, after serving with the RAF during the war, he discovers his political vocation, becoming the first black mayor of the London Borough of Southwark, while around him his friends and colleagues are establishing the community that has become such a central part of modern Britain. More than just the story of the meeting of the fortunes of one man and two nations, this is an exploration of personal and cultural history and of belonging - a gracious and revealing account of determination, honesty and faith, of achievement, experience and of the importance of preserving memories for posterity .."....In Climbing Up the Rough Side of the Mountain, Sam King, co-founder of the charitable Windrush Foundation, recalls life on board: the trepidation in the eyes of his countrymen (and eight women) who paid #28/10s (#28.50) to make the voyage, how they lived and slept side-by-side, forced down meals of mashed-potato, and pulled up thier zoot suit collars to fend off the sea breezes." 'The Independent on Sunday'