Check out David Lambert reading fromThe House in Bacolet.
British couple Hugh and Julia Pennington buy an old church to convert on a former cocoa plantation on a Caribbean island. When their estate agent fails to meet them at the airport, they accept a lift in a large American car from a charismatic local, Horatio. The couple are to become increasingly dependent on Horatio who ends up moving into their ‘servants’ quarters’ but remains an enigma.
Hugh and Julia want to ‘get involved’ in the life of their adopted island home. But they little suspect how much the past horrors of slavery, and their best intentions, will impact their lives. This tense psychological drama examines the delicate master-servant relationship against a Caribbean island's colonial background and a still simmering history of slavery.
An intimate portrait of a marriage, the novel also explores the difficulties of human communication and how these are compounded when race, sex and culture-bound assumptions are added to the mix.
About the author
Born in Trinidad and Tobago to a West Indian father and Irish mother, David Lambert grew up immersed in the rich diversity of the Caribbean, as well as experiencing life in Canada and the UK. He writes novels, plays, short stories and poetry inspired by travel.
A polyglot with a passion for learning, David Lambert holds a degree in French and Russian from Trinity College, Cambridge, a Diploma in Conference Interpreting from Bath University, and an MA in Applied Linguistics from Essex University. He has also completed the prestigious Masters in Creative Writing at UEA (2002).
David's curiosity has led him to explore various corners of the world. He has studied and worked as a tour guide in the former USSR, and as a Russian broadcast monitor for the BBC. He has also taught English in France, Spain, Tunisia, and the Gulf.
Since 1994, David Lambert has been a published writer of stories in English for foreign readers (Klett Verlag, Germany; ÖBV, Austria). He has taught creative writing as a Lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University (2003-16), and since 2010 has run creative writing retreats with his wife at their property in south-west France.
