Caribbean Books
Books from the Caribbean
Papillote Press is a small, independent publishing house specialising in books about Dominica and the wider Caribbean.
“Papillote Press is committed to telling our stories in books that are made to be treasured.” Marina Salandy-Brown, founder and director of the Bocas Lit Fest
“Papillote Press has been etching out a space for themselves as an outlet for burgeoning talent.” Richard Georges, poet, winner of the Bocas Lit Fest award for Caribbean literature, 2020
Updates
FEATURED BOOK
Good Night My Sweet Island
By Petrea Honychurch Seaman
Illustrations by Susanne Heitz
ISBN: 9781838041595
Original paperback
Price: £7.99
Publication: September 2023
Saying good night “to all things we love”: in a homage to a magical Caribbean island, Good Night My Sweet Island takes the reader through a poetic and visually stimulating journey. Each verse celebrates aspects of tropical island life: birds and beaches, fruits and forests, dancing and music, rivers and rain. As the sun goes down, a child says a dreamy good night to all the rich experiences of the day.
“A beautifully illustrated poetic depiction of an island I love with all my heart.” – Trish Cooke, author of So Much and Look Back!
“A feast for the ears and eyes. Beautiful.”
– Margaret Bateson-Hill, author of Masha and the Firebird
The rhythms, sights and sounds of the Caribbean are beautifully captured. A real joy.” – Valerie Bloom, Jamaican-born poet and novelist
Caribbean Books
Books from the Caribbean
Papillote Press is a small, independent publishing house specialising in books about Dominica and the wider Caribbean.
“Papillote Press is committed to telling our stories in books that are made to be treasured.” Marina Salandy-Brown, founder and director of the Bocas Lit Fest
“Papillote Press has been etching out a space for themselves as an outlet for burgeoning talent.” Richard Georges, poet, winner of the Bocas Lit Fest award for Caribbean literature, 2020
Updates
FEATURED BOOK
Good Night My Sweet Island
By Petrea Honychurch Seaman
Illustrations by Susanne Heitz
ISBN: 9781838041595
Original paperback
Price: £7.99
Publication: September 2023
Saying good night “to all things we love”: in a homage to a magical Caribbean island, Good Night My Sweet Island takes the reader through a poetic and visually stimulating journey. Each verse celebrates aspects of tropical island life: birds and beaches, fruits and forests, dancing and music, rivers and rain. As the sun goes down, a child says a dreamy good night to all the rich experiences of the day.
“A beautifully illustrated poetic depiction of an island I love with all my heart.” – Trish Cooke, author of So Much and Look Back!
“A feast for the ears and eyes. Beautiful.”
– Margaret Bateson-Hill, author of Masha and the Firebird
The rhythms, sights and sounds of the Caribbean are beautifully captured. A real joy.” – Valerie Bloom, Jamaican-born poet and novelist
Recent and Recommended
Still Standing
The Ti Kais of Dominica
By Adom Philogene Heron
Photographs by Marica Honychurch
ISBN: 9781838041588
2022, Paperback, £21.50
“A truly superb introduction to a traditional, yet evolving, element of Caribbean vernacular architecture and a fine example of creolization in material culture.” New West Indian Guide 98, forthcoming in “Bookshelf 2023”, spring 2024
This beautifully illustrated book is a celebration of the vanishing vernacular architecture of Dominica. These small wooden homes, ingeniously crafted and carefully adapted to their environment, have withstood hurricanes and earthquakes since their emergence in the post-emancipation period. While many modern, concrete homes have been destroyed, they are “still standing’. Even so, they are under threat from the forces of ‘modernity’ and ‘development’.
Black Man Listen
The Life of JR Ralph Casimir
ISBN: 9781838041526
2022, Paperback, £8.99
This is the first biography of the pioneering life of JR Ralph Casimir (1898-1986), a Pan- Africanist and poet from Dominica. Calling himself a “New Negro”, for more than half a century he confronted not just colonial rule, but his island’s elites.
A Scream in the Shadows
ISBN: 9781838041533
2022, Paperback, £8.99
So close to home… so far from justice… so far from paradise.
A compelling crime story set in the rural Caribbean where traditional allegiances and a flawed legal system provide a backdrop to the rape and murder of a young girl. When her step-father is accused of the crime, her brother joins the police to try and clear their father’s name. While the suspect languishes in jail, the young detective makes some disturbing discoveries.
Dangerous Freedom
ISBN: 9781999776862
2021, Paperback, £10.99
‘This is a thought-provoking and subtle novel, from an award-winning Trinidadian writer, which will not be easily forgotten,’ says the Historical Novel Society
In this radical and moving historical novel, Scott weaves fact with fiction to reveal “the great deception” exercised by the powerful on a mixed-race child born in the late 18th century and brought up in the London home of England’s Lord Chief Justice.
Dido Belle was the daughter of an African-born enslaved woman and the sea-faring nephew of Lord Mansfield…
RECOMMENDED
Still Standing
The Ti Kais of Dominica
By Adom Philogene Heron
Photographs by Marica Honychurch
ISBN: 9781838041588
2022, Paperback, £21.50
This beautifully illustrated book is a celebration of the vanishing vernacular architecture of Dominica. These small wooden homes, ingeniously crafted and carefully adapted to their environment, have withstood hurricanes and earthquakes since their emergence in the post-emancipation period. While many modern, concrete homes have been destroyed, they are “still standing’. Even so, they are under threat from the forces of ‘modernity’ and ‘development’.
Black Man Listen
ISBN: 9781838041526
2022, Paperback, £8.99
This is the first biography of the pioneering life of JR Ralph Casimir (1898-1986), a Pan- Africanist and poet from Dominica. Calling himself a “New Negro”, for more than half a century he confronted not just colonial rule, but his island’s elites.
A Scream in the Shadows
ISBN: 9781838041533
2022, Paperback, £8.99
So close to home… so far from justice… so far from paradise.
A compelling crime story set in the rural Caribbean where traditional allegiances and a flawed legal system provide a backdrop to the rape and murder of a young girl. When her step-father is accused of the crime, her brother joins the police to try and clear their father’s name. While the suspect languishes in jail, the young detective makes some disturbing discoveries.
Dangerous Freedom
ISBN: 9781999776862
2021, Paperback, £10.99
‘This is a thought-provoking and subtle novel, from an award-winning Trinidadian writer, which will not be easily forgotten,’ says the Historical Novel Society
In this radical and moving historical novel, Scott weaves fact with fiction to reveal “the great deception” exercised by the powerful on a mixed-race child born in the late 18th century and brought up in the London home of England’s Lord Chief Justice.
Dido Belle was the daughter of an African-born enslaved woman and the sea-faring nephew of Lord Mansfield…
featured contributors
Adom Philogene Heron
Adom Philogene Heron is an ethnographer of the Caribbean whose scholarship centres on Caribbean ecologies, hurricanes, and repair; Britain’s haunted post-imperial land/seascapes; and Caribbean fatherhood and family lives.
Marica Honychurch
Marica Honychurch is a photographer and videographer from Dominica. After living abroad, she has returned to her roots working in travel, portrait and documentary.
Kathy Casimir MacLean
Kathy Casimir MacLean was born in Dominica, and lives in London. She was head of the Ethnic Minority Achievement (EMA) Service in Wandsworth’s Children’s Services, south London…
Mac Donald Dixon
featured contributors
Adom Philogene Heron
Adom Philogene Heron is an ethnographer of the Caribbean whose scholarship centres on Caribbean ecologies, hurricanes, and repair; Britain’s haunted post-imperial land/seascapes; and Caribbean fatherhood and family lives.
Marica Honychurch
Marica Honychurch is a photographer and videographer from Dominica. After living abroad, she has returned to her roots working in travel, portrait and documentary.
Kathy Casimir MacLean
Kathy Casimir MacLean was born in Dominica, and lives in London. She was head of the Ethnic Minority Achievement (EMA) Service in Wandsworth’s Children’s Services, south London…
Mac Donald Dixon
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Papillote Press
Papillote Press publishes books from Dominica and the wider Caribbean. It's small but lovingly formed
