"From stationmaster s daughter to wife of one of Jamaica s most charismatic prime ministers Beverley Manley s life has been an odyssey. As a young girl, starved of her mother s love because she was darker than her siblings, and forced to do housework while her sisters relaxed, Beverley was a modern-day Cinderella. Told incessantly that she was good for nothing, she defied her mother s prophecy, and triumphed over her ordinary beginnings first as a model in London and later becoming a household name in local radio, television and on stage. It was her path at the then Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation (JBC) that would lead her directly to Michael Manley and to Jamaica House. Marriage to Michael also lead to her political awakening; not content with being the docile wife, Beverly assumed an activist role in the governing People s National Party (PNP), becoming embroiled in the ideological politics of the 1970s that would eventually lead to her estrangement from Michael, the destruction of their marriage, her flight into the arms of a rival lover and finally to a self-imposed exile in the US, where she took refuge from the ire of the Jamaican elite for daring to walk out on one of their own. But Beverly was to redeem herself and earn new respect as a broadcaster, commentator and incisive interviewer on the immensely popular and innovative Breakfast Club radio show. Now older and much wiser, Beverly tells it like it is in this intriguing and revealing memoir. It is a rags to riches story almost; a story of triumph and loss; of rising again and finally one of redemption." -- Publisher.

In this autobiographical account of the Reverend Hugh Sherlock, 'Father' to many. Yvonne Coke records and reflects on the life and times of Father Sherlock. Building on taped interviews and personal time spent with 'father' Sherlock, the author builds a portrait of one of Jamaica's leading sons, tracing his life from birth to death. The details of his life are painstakingly recorded in his own words, or the words of those whom he has influenced. For the first time the true story of how the country's National Anthem came to be written is recorded by the man who wrote the words. This inspiring story of a Methodist Minister, his beliefs and faith in God and his contribution to his country and Methodism, is a not to be missed story, full of pathos and simple faith, expressed through his personal life, the hymns he wrote, and his life long commitment to the underprivileged families of Boys' Town located in west Kingston. A story not without the common touch of a man whose fortitude and examples, will live on in the history of his beloved Jamaica. A truly worthwhile historical portrait of a true Jamaican man and his family. A deeply religious life revealed in a most inspiring life story - Mike Henry About the Author Yvonne O. Coke grew up in Kingston, attended Immaculate Conception and Kingsway High Schools and developed a love for the beauty and unpretentious wisdom of common Jamaican folk while living with her maternal grandmother in Ulster Spring, Trelawny between ages 3 and 7. An overwhelming sense of Justice, forgiveness and fair play, instilled by her mother as a child, led her to discovery of these very virtues in Jamaica's National Anthem, Pledge and Motto. Out of this discovery she said a vision of a Jamaica restored to the tenents of these foundational covenants and in 1994 started HANDS ACROSS JAMAICA FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS, a movement whose mission is: "To present the national symbols as a national philosophical point of reference and the basis for national righteousness as they become the framework of every area of Jamaican life." Out of the vision of HANDS came the idea to write this biography so that Jamaicans would know the origin and purpose of the National Anthem as presented through the life and work of Father Sherlock.