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Hot for Bev!
published: Tuesday | May 13, 2008
Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer
Beverley Anderson Manley. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
WITH INTEREST in Beverley Manley's book The Manley Memoirs growing, distributor Ian Randle Publishers (IRP) is contemplating advancing its release date.
"We are considering releasing it before May 26 because the demand has been so great. It's unprecedented for any book we've done," said Christine Randle, IRP's managing director.
Randle said demand has grown since excerpts of the book have been published in The Gleaner, and Manley's appearance on Television Jamaica's Profile with Ian Boyne.
The book's initial print run is 2,000 copies.
Tumultuous relationship
Manley writes openly of her tumultuous relationship with her mother and the infidelities that rocked her marriage to former prime minister Michael Manley.
She will read from The Manley Memoirs at next week's Calabash International Literary Festival in St Elizabeth.
IRP has big plans for the book, Randall told The Gleaner.
"We have launches planned for key areas where the (Jamaican) diaspora is well represented, such as Miami, Washington (D.C.) and Toronto. We also have something planned for the United Kingdom," Randle said.
Randle said Manley presented the final draft of The Manley Memoirs in early 2007, one year after leaving the Breakfast Club. She was co-host of that radio talk show with Anthony Abrahams for 13 years.
She currently hosts the Early Show on Hot 102 FM.
Differing backgrounds
Beverley Anderson says she first met Michael Manley in the late 1960s. Their backgrounds were worlds apart. She was a model and broadcaster raised by a railway worker father and a housewife mother in the east Kingston community of Rollington Town.
He was the erudite son of Jamaica's first premier Norman Washington Manley, who had attended the London School of Economics.
Manley was a rising star on the national scene. He was an island supervisor with the National Workers Union and was elected to succeed his father as People's National Party (PNP) president in late 1969.
Class prejudices
They married six months after Manley led the PNP to a resounding victory in general elections. It was his fourth marriage. Their vastly different social origins was a talking point throughout the 1970s when Jamaica's class prejudices played out.
Beverley Manley said her colour and natural look did not endear her to the Drumblair elite, a group of intellects who met regularly at Norman Manley's St Andrew home.
[me think this only happened in the JLP circle
]
She bore Michael Manley two children. Natasha was born in 1974 while David was born in 1980, the year Manley and the PNP were trounced by the Jamaica Labour Party in general elections.
Long-term with DK
The marriage ended in divorce in 1993. Manley went on to marry Glynne Ewart, former wife of his close friend Barclay Ewart. He died of prostrate cancer in 1997.
Beverley Manley has been in a long-term relationship with D K Duncan, minister of mobilisation in the Manley cabinet of the 1970s. She gives a detailed description of that relationship in the book.
published: Tuesday | May 13, 2008
Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer
Beverley Anderson Manley. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
WITH INTEREST in Beverley Manley's book The Manley Memoirs growing, distributor Ian Randle Publishers (IRP) is contemplating advancing its release date.
"We are considering releasing it before May 26 because the demand has been so great. It's unprecedented for any book we've done," said Christine Randle, IRP's managing director.
Randle said demand has grown since excerpts of the book have been published in The Gleaner, and Manley's appearance on Television Jamaica's Profile with Ian Boyne.
The book's initial print run is 2,000 copies.
Tumultuous relationship
Manley writes openly of her tumultuous relationship with her mother and the infidelities that rocked her marriage to former prime minister Michael Manley.
She will read from The Manley Memoirs at next week's Calabash International Literary Festival in St Elizabeth.
IRP has big plans for the book, Randall told The Gleaner.
"We have launches planned for key areas where the (Jamaican) diaspora is well represented, such as Miami, Washington (D.C.) and Toronto. We also have something planned for the United Kingdom," Randle said.
Randle said Manley presented the final draft of The Manley Memoirs in early 2007, one year after leaving the Breakfast Club. She was co-host of that radio talk show with Anthony Abrahams for 13 years.
She currently hosts the Early Show on Hot 102 FM.
Differing backgrounds
Beverley Anderson says she first met Michael Manley in the late 1960s. Their backgrounds were worlds apart. She was a model and broadcaster raised by a railway worker father and a housewife mother in the east Kingston community of Rollington Town.
He was the erudite son of Jamaica's first premier Norman Washington Manley, who had attended the London School of Economics.
Manley was a rising star on the national scene. He was an island supervisor with the National Workers Union and was elected to succeed his father as People's National Party (PNP) president in late 1969.
Class prejudices
They married six months after Manley led the PNP to a resounding victory in general elections. It was his fourth marriage. Their vastly different social origins was a talking point throughout the 1970s when Jamaica's class prejudices played out.
Beverley Manley said her colour and natural look did not endear her to the Drumblair elite, a group of intellects who met regularly at Norman Manley's St Andrew home.
[me think this only happened in the JLP circle
]She bore Michael Manley two children. Natasha was born in 1974 while David was born in 1980, the year Manley and the PNP were trounced by the Jamaica Labour Party in general elections.
Long-term with DK
The marriage ended in divorce in 1993. Manley went on to marry Glynne Ewart, former wife of his close friend Barclay Ewart. He died of prostrate cancer in 1997.
Beverley Manley has been in a long-term relationship with D K Duncan, minister of mobilisation in the Manley cabinet of the 1970s. She gives a detailed description of that relationship in the book.
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