By Delia Jarrett-Macauley
I was thrilled when I found out a new drama documentary was to focus on Una Marson. At the time, I didn’t realise it would be part of the BBC’s 100-year anniversary celebrations – but how apt!
Una Marson was the pioneering black producer who started the BBC’s West Indian Service. Not only did Una help the West Indian servicemen and women to send messages home, she also devised Caribbean Voices which gave poets and short story writersan outlet for their work.
During Black History Month, we have the time and space to focus our attention on the exceptional figures who’ve shaped British society and make sense of their legacy. In her time, Una Marson – journalist, playwright, poet, broadcaster, feminist activist and social campaigner – was committed to the ordinary black people of the Caribbean and the UK. Today, an increasing number of arts groups are producing her plays, university students are reading her literary work and school children are seeing pictures of her during the war years when she was employed by the BBC.
I’m looking forward to seeing the documentary, Una Marson Our Lost Caribbean Voice, and hope that the public’s interest in her life and accomplishments will continue for many years to come.
I’ve enjoyed working with the BBC on various occasions to celebrate Una’s life, including appearances on Women’s Hour and a Radio 3 broadcast, Voice: The Una Marson story, back in 2004. My full length biography on the life of Una Marson is available to buy from Manchester University Press, see below for more details.
The life of Una Marson, 1905-65
By Delia Jarrett-Macauley
An original, full length biography of Britain’s first twentieth-century black feminist – Una Marson – poet, playwright, and social activist and BBC broadcaster. Buy your copy
Paperback | 978-0-7190-8256-6 | £15.99