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This month's newsletter from the editor.
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We received a great many heartfelt responses to the news of Archie’s death. Archie was cremated at a small private ceremony in Paris on Monday 14th of April. There will undoubtedly be an event at some point in the future to celebrate Archie’s life and we will circulate any information as soon as we have it.
CONDOLENCES
Many thanks for alerting us to the very sad news of Archie's passing. It is the second shock caused by news of sudden death in a week. Last saturday I was deeply distressed to learn of the sudden death of my friend and comrade Steve Sinnott, a fantastic trade unionist, humanist and defender of teachers' rights and the entitlements of those they teach.
Archie was an inspirational and committed writer and a warm-hearted soul. His contribution to our cultural activism and to the corpus of literature created by people of his generation is massive. His death is the latest in the passing of a generation, alas too many and too soon, that have held up a beacon to our creativity, our historical and dialectical struggles and our hopes and aspirations.
Please convey our condolences and best wishes to his family. No doubt you will be thinking of ways to celebrate his life and contribution in this country. Let us know.
Solidarity, Peace and Progress.
Gus John
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I am sadden by the news please send my condolences to his friends and family .
Janet Harvey
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I just got a call from Palorine telling me about Archies death. I'm so sorry to hear that. He was one of my tutors at Sheffield Hallam. If you know of you any memorials or anything like that, could you please let me know?
Thanks
desiree (reynolds)
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I am so sorry to hear this. i feel it more as this is the second person I have heard of collapsing in Paris in the past couple of months--and the first one hit me hard. My condolences to you, Peepal Tree and his family. words are so inadequate. thank you for letting me know.
Curdella (Forbes)
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Please accept my condolence on the passing of Archie, one of the leading poets in the world writing in English. With his rare talent, he put Montserrat on the map. We are proud of his international stature and I feel honoured that he was my personal friend.
News of his death came as a shock and with a great sense of loss. We in Montserrat who know him and enjoyed his writing prowess mourn his death although the grief is keener for you and other members of his immediate family.
Not so well at the moment, I unfortunately cannot attend the funeral, but my heart, spirit and sympathies are with you. I wrote the attached poem after the sad news reached me.
Sincerely and sympathetically
Howard (Fergus)
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Oh Jeremy, what sad news! I last saw him in Paris a couple of years ago where I enjoyed his company immensely, as always. He was a writer of real significance, as well as a lovely man, and will be much missed.
Please pass on my condolences to his family.
Thank you for letting me know.
Paula (Burnett)
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I was told yesterday of Archie Markham's untimely death. What a shock and Trudi Taylor passed on your email too.
I am editor of the student magazine Matter ( for the MA Creative Writing course) which Archie Markham was a founding member of. We would love to include some of his work in the coming issue ( due in October this year) as a celebration and commemoration of him.
Tanya Chan-Sam
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Many thanks for contacting me, Jeremy; it is very sad news. I have passed on the message to Walsall Libraries and I shall contact Managers in the Black Country to convey this message.
Best wishes from,
Sonia (Dixon)
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Jeremy, i sit here stunned long after seeing early this evening yr so Quietly beautiful the loss and the meaning of the loss of Archie. first John, now Archie. both rare strong friends. I sit here in the dark w/lit cyandles
Kamau Brathwaite
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Thanks for let me know, going to miss the brother, was always a pleasure spending time with him.I have passed it on.
As Aubrey Bryan puts it - we all in the departure lounge.
One Love
Marc Matthews
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We would like to send our condolences to Archie Markham’s family at this sad time
Judy and Robin Forward
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Though I solely knew Mr Markham on the basis of his diverse writings, I am most grieved. It was last Sunday, while on train to Wroclaw, Poland, that I re-read his Hinterland anthology. Magnificent writer.
Regards
Bartosz Wojcik
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Thanks very much for sharing the news. Sad news but, hey, Archie lived it to the fullest and leaves behind a monumental heritage. May he rest in piece.
Sandile Ngidi
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Thank you Jeremy for letting me know the news about Archie Markham. I am numb with shock and sadness. Please let me know of any plans for events, memorials, celebrations etc.
Blessings
Palorine Williams
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This is shocking and very sad news.
I wish yo join you and Peepal Tree Press in remembering Mr. Markham.
I am glad you contributed to making his message to the world known.
Best regards,
Paola Loreto
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JUst picked up the news of Archie's death, while nothing is surprising or unexpected, when such news arrives one is always stunned. I have fond memories of Archie as I have interviewed him during my broadcasting life and was always pleased to meet and chat with him.
Please let me know of his funeral arrangements.
Alex (Pascall)
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So very sorry to hear the news - please accept our sympathy and extend our condolences to the family.
E.M. Grimes-Graeme, The Best Of Books
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I heard of this this afternoon via someone who'd dropped into Hallam.
I am very sad - he was my tutor at Hallam, and also a personal friend, though we hadn't met for a few years. It's hard to imagine a world without Archie in it.
Janet
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Janet Fisher & Peter Sansom
The Poetry Business
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Thanks for telling me. I am sending it on to a few people who will be equally shocked. I can just imagine his family!!!
Of course all we can do is rejoice in the good times together and remember what a fulfilling life he had
Love and Thanks
velmaP (Velma Pollard)
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This is a very great loss for us; I am very sad to hear it. I just finished a collection he edited, Hinterland, which I greatly enjoyed. My condolences to his family. He will be missed.
Berkley Semple
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Dear Jeremy, This is sad news. Thanks for telling me.
Jan (Shinebourne)
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Thanks so much for sending me the sad news about Archie Markham. I only met him briefly, and fairly recently, but he made a tremendous impression on me, as I'm sure he did on everyone else.
Michael Mitchell
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Thanks for this, Jeremy. How sad and unexpected. I shall remember him fondly. Archie was a one-off. Please let me know if a memorial service is to be held.
best
Bernardine Evaristo
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That is such sad news and a shock. I feel so bad for not having Archie at Calabash earlier. I did try. But it should have happened. I was giving that man many, many more years. Wow. Thanks for your lovely and meaningful note.
One love
Kwame Dawes
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many thanks for your message, just opened, which is a dreadful shock. I knew Archie from years of external examining Creative Writing in Sheffield Hallam, where he was a real comrade. A lovely man and a good writer, who, one felt, would just go on and on. It's good to know that things are coming out and I'll have a chance to hear his voice again,
With warmest and best wishes,
Vic (Sage)
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sorry to hear your sad news
Valerie Mason-John
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such sad news, but thanks for letting me know. I saw Archie do a poetry reading 2 a couple of years ago for Magma, and he was very good, and such a nice man. And I enjoyed his work and so wrote a project on his poetry last year for my ongoing masters.
Sending my deepest condolences to his family and friends, Steve
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Thank you for informing me. I am saddened to hear of his death and grieve for the books that he will no longer be able to write. My sincerest condolences to his family. I hope too that his death in Paris was a peaceful one.
Best,
Ramabai (Espinet)
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Really sorry to hear about E.A. Markham's passing, Jeremy--and thanks for letting us over here know.
I did meet Archie once or twice, in the UK: at literary things; and he did publish me in *Artsrage* --a poem which I don't have a copy of anymore (misplaced it somewhere). More than anything, I was impressed by Archie's dedication to literature, his seriousness, and above all else, his fideltiy to form and poetic perfection (once or twice I even imagined him doing numerous drafts/revisions of the poems he had published in the TLS (if my memory serves me correctly, about seeing some of his poems there).
My sympathies to his family, naturally. It's a genuine loss to Caribbean and world literature.
Best regards,
CYRIL (Dabydeen)
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Sorry to hear about EA Markham, I only met him the one time when being photographed with him and others for ‘the great day’ photo at the british library, I did like his writing.
John Siddique
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Please accept my sincere condolences for what must have been a endearing and delightful person. I know how much someone so talented and lively can mean to one...... I am sure Archie was happy to have such a loving group of people around him.
Joyce M. Brown
President, Cultural Arts Natural Design International (CANDI)
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Thanks for the information. My deepest sympathy to the family.
Frank H. Seodial
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Thanx for the sad news about E.A.Markham - I can't believe it like that of Maud Salter recently. I’m shocked also because we shared a platform together in Scotland a year or so ago and he was in good spirit and healthy.
Let me know where I can my message of sympathy.
Until
Michael (McMillan)
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Thanks for this sad news. Archie was a great guy and one of the most fair minded people I have ever worked with. I would be very grateful (if you felt it appropriate) if you passed on my sympathies to his family and would appreciate any news of a Memorial Sevice.
Best
David Perry
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Thanks for message. This is indeed sad news about Archie Markham. I remember him well reading his poetry at the St. Croix Caribbean literature conference in the late 1990s. His energy was remarkable. I will make an announcement in my department.
I too would like to express condolences to Archie’s family.
Vincent O. Cooper PH.D
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Deepest regrets.
jeffrey cobham
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It was great regret that I read of E. A Markham's recent death. As someone from the Caribbean, I have always admired him and loved his writing. I am disappointed that I have never had the opportunity to meet him. He will be sadly missed. My smpathies to his friends and family.
Regards,
Jean (Ashbury)
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It is indeed sad news! Please accept our sympathy and convey to his family. Nelly S. Gonzalez, University of Illinois Latin American and Caribbean Library
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Please accept our sympathy on the sudden passing of a dear colleague. It is hard on his family.
Eusi (Kwayana)
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Please accept my condolences, and thanks for letting us all know.
Tamara Kaye Sellman
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Thank you for sharing this very sad news, and please accept condolences. I am sure that his legacy will be extraordinary thanks to Peepal Tree Press and others.
Accept heart felt wishes from Bernadette (Dyer) in Toronto.
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Very saddened to hear this tragic news. He was a remarkable, irrepressible man with such a sense of style, integrity and depth of vision in his work. We send you and his family our heartfelt sympathy and condolences and will treasure the memory of Archie's event at last October's Festival.
Best Wishes,
Rachel (Feldberg) and All at Ilkely Literature Festival
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I was saddened to hear about Archie, a great loss and so sudden,
best wishes
Melanie (Abrahams)
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Many thanks for letting me know Jeremy, I am absolutely shocked. Just last month Archie gave a poetry reading here at Keele to a huge audience and we had a lovely exchange.
bw.charlotte (Williams)
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Sad news indeed, and a great loss.
Best wishes from all at litfest.
Jonathan Bean
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I just wanted to write to send my condolences, as it must be a loss for both of you on a personal level, as well as, of course, the loss to the literary tradition of Caribbean and black British writing of what he may have written in the future. It's very sad news.
All the best,
Lucy (Evans)
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Though I didn't have much contact with EA Markham I was aware of his contrbution.
As a senior citizen myself I'm keenly aware of what may happen momently.
The passing of Roi Kwabena in January, was another such event.
But all we can do is keep doing what we do. Where the deceased has lived an abundant life as in these two cases the best we can do is celebrate their contributions and those who interacted with them personally can celebrate their humanity. I had a little tiff with him over a journal he had intended to call The New Voices. I don't really know what happened with that afterward. However I know many eminent writers who thought well of him and I am happy for that.
Both he and Kwabena must be in Writers Heaven if there's such a place for them/us.
Anson Gonzalez
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I'm very sorry to hear the sad news about Archie Markham's death.
I wish to express my sympathy to his family and friends and to send them my condolences.
As the Latin word 'condolere' expresses, I feel in me the grief his friends and family are suffering.
Yours ever,
Salvador Ortiz-Carboneres
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Five minutes ago I received a note from my dear friend, Kate Griffin, telling me the sad news. And it is ironical that I heard from you, yesterday, about another matter, and no one, in the wildest of minds, thought...
Archie is gone. I am sorry that his family, in England, did not learn sooner of his death.
When you get in touch with them, and his friends and his colleagues, do give them my deepest condolences. And please tell me what is being done, in the way of memorials, so that I might arrange to attend.
Most sincerely; and sadly,
Austin. (Austin C. Clarke)
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Dear Jeremy
Many thanks for your message. I’ve only just heard also. I’ve alerted Archie’s former Sheffield Hallam colleague Sean O’Brien in the hope that he might write a good tribute to Archie in one of the papers. Peter Jay will be terribly shocked also. It is all such a shock, and so sad that no one knew till now.
Best wishes
Neil (Astley)
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Terrible to hear of Archie's death. He was always so full of life. The last time I met him must have been at a symposium at Lancaster. Like everyone else I saw him less often once he moved to Paris. But every subsequent meeting was the more pleasurable on account of his being further away. I'll read his poems this evening and remember him.
Thank you for emailing me.
Best,
Shirley (Chew)
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I am very sorry to hear of Archie's passing. Although I never met him in person, I spoke with him a few times on the phone when he was working on the Caribbean short story anthology, and I've always liked his work. He seemed a truly nice and generous person.
My sincere condolences to his family.
Alecia (McKenzie)
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what terrible news ... I'm so sorry to hear.
Thanks for letting us know ...
Denise (de Caires Narain)
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Jeremy, Hannah--very shocked and saddened to hear this. All at the CRB and MEP send our condolences.
Nicholas (Laughlin)
Caribbean Review of Books
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Dear Jeremy,
We at Days are also deeply sorry to hear of the passing of Archie.
Regards,
Sharifa Drakes
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Our deepest condolences.
We only heard yesterday.
Archie was meant to hand out prizes at our National Poetry Competition event on the 27th of March and we were worried when he didn't show up, and even more so when we didn't hear for a week afterwards. Lisa Roberts write a heartfelt note on the Competition pages on our website.
With warm wishes,
Jules (Mann)
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That is very sad news - he will be greatly missed from the UK literary scene,
John Lake (Barbican Library)
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Thank you for telling me that. It is very sad news. Very sad indeed. Please pass my condolences to Archie's family.
Best
Danuta (Kean)
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I'm sorry to hear of his passing and send my sympathies to his family.
Kris Rampersad
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This is indeed sad news. Please convey to his family my deep sympathies. As someone who can also be described as "being on the move"--recent trips to Central Asia, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia--Archie's terrible passing is a warning to me to let at least my family know, daily, my whereabouts. I hope that you and the Peepal Tree Press family will also accept my condolences, and raise a glass to a fine-fine writer.
Sincerely,
Brenda (Flanagan)
* * *
That's terrible news. Archie was a committed writer and a great mind.
I know he'll be much missed...
Courttia (Newland)
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happened to meet Alan Mahar at Tindal Street Press last night who let me know. This truly is a loss -- on the few occasions that I met him, Archie always seemed to have infinite energy. In fact, the last time I saw him read I had to leave after two and a half hours!
I didn't realise that such an amount of time had passed before his family were notified. That must have been very distressing.
Our thoughts are with them.
best, m (Maeve Haughey)
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Dear Jeremy, thank you very much for letting us know the sad news of Archie Markham’s death. What a shock, and what a loss. Good wishes, Maggie
Maggie Fergusson, Secretary
The Royal Society of Literature
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I have only just got this shattering news. I am shocked. So shocked that I cannot think properly. I knew Archie very well. In recent years we’ve read and run creative writing workshops together, e.g. in Lincoln City and at Bath Literature Festival, where we discussed the direction of Caribbean, African and World literature. I enjoyed every reading and discussion of Literature which Archie presented throughout the years. Archie is the only Caribbean writer I know who has visited Mozambique, written about it and loved its people and landscape. He is the only one I know who has visited my country, Malawi, and still held marvelous memories of its beautiful landscape. But Archie was one of the best teachers of creative writing too; Sheffield Hallam University were lucky to get him for the years he taught there. When he moved to Paris he kept me informed of the books he was writing. Archie was a distinguished scholar in world literature, from the classical to the modern; he had an infectious sense of humour; whenever we read from our work, we often agreed to offer the audience before us deliberately deadly and often self-mocking responses to the burdens of black people in our writing. Archie’s natural and creative gifts could not be exhaustively listed. Caribbean, African and world scholarship and its creative possibilities has lost one of its most original talents. May God protect the family that he has left behind. May his soul rest in peace. Jeremy, I do not know what to say, I hope Peepal Tree Press can gather whatever Archie was writing and publish it to his precious memory.
With much love
Jack Mapanje
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I was sorry to receive your sad news, and clearly saw how affected all of you were by it.
Please accept my condolences - its always hard to lose a good friend and gifted colleague. Its a comfort that Mr Markham left something enduring behind - his writings. Although I'm sure that, to his friends, his memory is worth as much.
May you be comforted at this time.
Carol (Holas)
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I'm very sorry to hear of Archie's death, of course I only met him once or twice but it is still very sad. I have passed your message on to other Centre members.
Marjorie Davies (University of Warwick Centre for Caribbean Studies)
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We are shocked and saddened to learn of the sudden passing of Archie Markham. While it was my loss not to have met him personally I've always admired his creative efforts from afar.
We would like to join in sending condolences to the bereaved family.
Amina Gafoor (The Arts Journal, Guyana)
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Condolences. I too shall miss Archie.
Mervyn Morris
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Archie was a man of great tact and sensitivity and graciousness, who always made me feel better in this rough and often hostile world. His sixtieth birthday in Sheffield was one of my best Sheffield memories- a redeeming memory and a very important day for me.. I wrote recently to tell him this and I'm very glad I did. I also cherish a memory of introducing him to Robert Skidelsky at the RSL and the happy way these two lively men got on with one another.
Margaret Drabble
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I have been very shocked and deeply saddened to hear the news of Archie Markham: first from Peter Fraser, then from you. Thank you indeed for writing with such details as are known.
As Archie's publishers - past and present - you must feel his loss most keenly. The characteristics and practices which you outline so vividly accord all too closely with my own, if less immediate, knowledge of him. I held his work, as writer and as editor, in the highest regard. I delighted in his company. His sudden death, with his memoir, Against The Grain, in the final stages of publication, and with - as you say - always so much more to be written - is a deprivation indeed, on an incalculable scale.
No doubt you will be receiving very many messages of sorrow and sympathy to Archie's family. Please add mine.
I know that Peter Fraser hopes to attend Archie's funeral in Paris on Monday. I await details of whatever memorial event is to be held in Britain, and certainly hope to be there. And I await the posthumous, poignant publication of his memoirs.
With my thoughts and my sympathy,
Sincerely,
Anne (Walmsley)
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I met Archie a few times, but more importantly, heard him read his wonderful work. He will be very much missed around the vibrant writing scene that he helped to foster in Sheffield.
Best wishes
Sandra Courtman
Society for Caribbean Studies (UK)
University of Sheffield.
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Against the Grain: A 1950s Memoir E.A. Markham
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