Published Author, Creative Writer,
Mother, And Educator...
Cheryl Diane Parkinson is a Caribbean British writer and author. She writes for BlackNews.UK, Dinosaur Books, Kunda Kids and Lemons and Gold. Her books can be found on Amazon.UK and all good bookstores. She is the author of Berthas, Maya, and Last Girl In. Coming soon: Cracker and Skank Face Sami.
Who Is Cheryl Diane Parkinson?
Short Bio
Dr. Cheryl Diane Parkinson is a Caribbean British writer/educator from East London, living in Lincolnshire. She is an educator of 20 years, teaching English Literature and Language at GCSE and A Level and has recently completed a PhD at Birmingham University in Creative Writing. Her publishing history includes writing non-fiction for ByLine Times, (2021) The Voice Online, Fem Magazine as well as The National Union of Teachers. She is published by LemonsNGold and Dinosaur Books Ltd. Her latest book Last Girl In is long-listed for the Branford Boase Awards 2024.
As a writer she is concerned with representation of black people within the literary arena and equality for all. She seeks to create characters that others would like to read about. In the wake of George Floyd, she would like to contribute to the creative solution needed to help our world become a more understanding place.
Berthas
Sysnopsis
Berthas is a novel exploring the Black British Caribbean Identity of Black British Caribbean Women and the notion of 'blackness.' Set in both the UK and the West Indies, Berthas explores the issues of hybridity, diaspora, and duality; following four women over four generations. The imagery presented is vivid and the language is lyrical. This emotive tale begins with the death of a matriarch and ends in the birth of her granddaughter. Berthas is written in a lyrical style much like Toni Morrison's Jazz (1992), Beloved (1987) as well as Sam Selvon's Lonely Londoners (1956). Like these novels, Berthas has a distinct but modern style that deliberately links with these lyrical novels. And like the characters and people it represents, the structure of this novel is of a hybrid nature. Berthas rests within the oral tradition of the Caribbean as well as incorporating the traditional superstitious beliefs that survived African Slavery, combined/compared with the religious Christian beliefs of the West, and is very much set in the modern world. The language is also reflective of the hybridity of the people, combining English with Patois in order to create a new language for a new people. Published by Lemons and Gold.
The structure combines different voices, exploring Double Consciousness through Dissociative Identity Disorder, and the hybridity of culture and experience through Revisionist Literature. These voices overlap at times, creating a sense of confusion which is reflective of the theorised collective sense of cultural confusion of being Black Caribbean British. Berthas also examines the internal voice much like Bessie Heads, A Question of Power (1973).
Berthas By Cheryl Diane Parkinson
Last Girl In: Celebrating cricket, Windrush families & girls in sport. Kerry-Ann loves cricket – it’s in her DNA – her Jamaican grandpa taught her to play as soon as she could hold a bat! Whenever she can, Kerry-Ann heads to the local club with her friends – including Amardeep – her best friend. But now some of the club's older players – those in the elite First XI – have decided that the cricket club belongs to them only – and that Kerry-Ann and her team are not welcome. So Kerry-Ann devises a daring plan – a brilliant way to beat the bullies. And unbeknown to her, she’s about to get some very unexpected help with her fight. A time slip tale with a touch of magic, Kerry-Ann experiences what life was like for her Jamaican grandpa when he first arrived in England as part of the Windrush generation.
And she discovers how she must follow in his footsteps, in order to continue playing the game they both love..
Last Girl In
A celebration of family, friendship, cricket, British Caribbean culture and women’s sport.
All children who like cricket – girls and boys – will love the cricketing theme and exciting game details in the story. The story resonates particularly with Black Caribbean families – supporting girls and boys to understand the importance of cricket to the Caribbean, and to their heritage. This is the perfect chapter book for young readers and their families who want to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the arrival of HMS Windrush – being celebrated in June 2023.
Comparable to Jason Reyonolds
Last Girl In By Cheryl Diane Parkinson
Maya
Maya is about a black woman who dies and is then reincarnated as a teenage white girl. She inhabits within her psyche the memories of the Middle passage as well as the stereotype of The Angry Black Woman - an alto ego that many black people have inside in order to survive in a white society. This young white girl struggles with essentially two personalities within one white body. There can only be one dominant personality...
Maya By Cheryl Diane Parkinson
Monica
Short Story
The short story Monica is published within this collection, Roots.
This summer issue invited its contributors and readers to explore the depth and meaning of their ‘Roots’. As the world shifts and changes under social and environmental pressures, ‘Roots’ harkens to where we came from and what might ground us. It is a collection of art that spans the globe and the spectrum of human experience.
From the breadth and surprise of family trees to the patient lessons of gardens, from the damaged roots that learn to thrive to the new and tender roots that only just began to grow, these works invite you to examine and define the ties that bind.
Cheryl Diane Parkinson is also a writer and editor for BlackNews.UK
Jar of Teeth. Published by The Grapevine Magazine.
Teeth are funny. They mean different things to different people. Once, when I was younger, I met this boy called Charles. Which may or may not have been his real name. Charles loved his teeth. Perhaps more than what was considered normal. Skin was black as coal, his teeth glowed white, framed by his wide smile. Row upon row of polished white teeth crammed his mouth like pearl peas in a dark pod. I didn’t trust that smile, but I couldn’t stop staring.
I imagined him brushing them religiously every night for three minutes, not two, with an egg timer to keep him on track. Then I imagined him flossing. And mouthwash afterwards. Listerine - of course. The one that had the built-in-whitener. And he would use a whitening gel and painstakingly paint it on each tooth - careful to get in the folds. Then he would wait, mouth gaping like a fish, for it to dry. But his teeth were in his mouth. Exactly where you would expect them to be. But sometimes, I now know, teeth appear in other places. With the looming threat of ripping flesh.
OUR LIVES MATTER.
Black History is Still Confined to the Margins of the Education System
20 October 2020
I came across a young dual-heritage student recently in my school who pointed out a black and white A5 poster stuck on an empty white wall, advertising Black History Month. A conversation began around the Black Lives Matter movement before a white student groaned, waved his hands around animatedly and said: “For God’s sake, all lives matter!”The boy is 11 years old and seems to have absorbed the divisive misinformation peddled by the National Curriculum.
Boris Johnson’s Government is fixated with ‘British values’, yet the students I come across on a daily basis are taught the opposite. According to Ofsted, which inspects schools, “fundamental British values” comprise “individual liberty” and “mutual respect for and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs, and for those without faith”.
But the teaching demanded in schools does not correlate with these ideals.
Students are unaware of black Georgians, Victorians and Romans. And they aren’t told about the racist pseudo-science that developed on the tails of the Enlightenment period. Fundamentally, there is still an underlying attitude that Britishness equates to whiteness, and a lack of interest in the experience of the black community. Read more by clicking here.
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