Natives of My Person

A profound exploration of colonialism, from one of the Caribbean’s most powerful literary voices 
 
A powerful reimagining of the age of European exploration, Natives of My Person tells the story of a nameless Commandant who sets sail under imperial orders – somewhere between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries – to locate the fabled island of San Cristobal, a place shrouded in myth and promise. But this is no ordinary voyage. As the expedition unfolds, it becomes a mirror of the imperial mind – ambitious, fractured, haunted by its own contradictions. 
 
With poetic intensity and philosophical depth, this is a novel that journeys far beyond the seas it charts. Through shifting perspectives and a richly layered narrative, Lamming unearths the deep scars of conquest and the personal and political dimensions of empire – its delusions, its violence, and the haunting legacy it leaves behind.

One of the great political novels in modern ‘colonial’ literature

Natives of My Person' is undoubtedly George Lamming's finest novel. It succeeds in illuminating new areas of darkness in the colonial past that the colonizer has so far not dealt with, and in this sense it is a profoundly revolutionary and original work... George Lamming is not so much a novelist as a chronicler of secret journeys to the innermost regions of the West Indian psyche

George Lamming was a Barbados-born novelist, essayist, and poet. He taught at universities around the world, including posts of Distinguished Visiting Professor at Duke University and Visiting Professor at Brown University. His books include In the Castle of My Skin (1953), The Emigrants (1954), Of Age and Innocence (1958), and The Pleasures of Exile (1960).

A powerful reimagining of the age of European exploration, Natives of My Person tells the story of a nameless Commandant who sets sail under imperial orders – somewhere between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries – to locate the fabled island of San Cristobal, a place shrouded in myth and promise. But this is no ordinary voyage. As the expedition unfolds, it becomes a mirror of the imperial mind – ambitious, fractured, haunted by its own contradictions. 
 
With poetic intensity and philosophical depth, this is a novel that journeys far beyond the seas it charts. Through shifting perspectives and a richly layered narrative, Lamming unearths the deep scars of conquest and the personal and political dimensions of empire – its delusions, its violence, and the haunting legacy it leaves behind.

George Lamming

Its poetic imaginative writing has never been surpassed

In a sleepy fishing village in 1930s Barbados, nine-year-old G. leads a life of quiet mischief. While the village lies tranquil in the shadow of its English landlord, Mr Creighton, and his towering house on the hill, G. makes his own fun, crab catching, teasing preachers, and playing among the pumpkin vines. Yet from this world of boyish pursuits, the precocious G. finds himself slowly awakening to strange goings-on in adult society. All around him, sudden bursts of violence - a devastating flood on the morning of his birthday; the headmaster unduly flogging his schoolmates on Empire day - hint at a brutality and destruction lurking beneath the apparently peaceful order of things. 
 
As the mounting wrongs of the present drive the villagers to rise up against Mr Creighton, the fissures in the façade of his Barbadian 'little England' begin to crack open, laying bare the central, bruising secret at the heart of their shared past. And as the world he knows crumbles before his eyes, G. is spurred ever closer to a life-changing decision. Poetic, unsettling, this classic coming-of-age novel is a story of tragic innocence, as a poor village boy comes to consciousness amid the collapse of colonial rule in mid-century Barbados.

In the Castle of My Skin

About us

About Us (Header 4)

Best-Jane-Austen-quotes_Online-Desktop_Penguin

James-Baldwin

Marian-Keyes

haruki-murakami-320×320-1

Richard-Osman

Malorie Blackman

Lisa-Jewell

Charlie-Mackesy

Authors (Header 3)

Children&#039;s

Company

Discover

Fiction

Non-fiction

Penguin Classics

Penguin Shop (Header 5)

Useful links

Work with us

sectionTitle

isEnabled

anchor

anchorLabel

prhuk/featured-book

prhuk/praise-section

maxBooks

showViewMore

prhuk/books-section

hideAuthorAlert

formName

iterableDivision

iterableBrand

buttonText

description

heading

legalText

successHeading

successText

image

alignment

variation

prhuk/email-section

prhuk/series-section

prhuk/biography-section

prhuk/articles-section

prhuk-authors

The perfect gift? A Penguin Shop gift card

<a href="https://shop.penguin.co.uk/collections/book-bundles-modern-classics/?&amp;utm_source=Penguin.co.uk&amp;utm_medium=Linked_text&amp;utm_campaign=Penguin_Modern_Classics_Series_26_06">Choose 3 timeless classics for only £21 over on the Penguin Shop</a>

Penguin Modern Classics

East of Eden

Wuthering Heights

White Nights

Fyodor Dostoyevsky Boxed Set: Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, The Brothers Karamazov

George Lamming

Praise for In the Castle of My Skin

Its poetic imaginative writing has never been surpassed

Rich and riotous

Fluent, poetical, sophisticated

Its poetic imaginative writing has never been surpassed

Rich and riotous

Fluent, poetical, sophisticated

Its poetic imaginative writing has never been surpassed

Rich and riotous

Fluent, poetical, sophisticated

Books by George Lamming

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter