Walking in the Ayahs’ Footsteps
With Rozina Visram, archivist and historian who uncovered the Ayahs’ history and the inspiration for Dr Devi in ‘When Secrets Set Sail’. A meeting at The British Library
On Thursday 16th June the Ayahs’ Home in Hackney will receive a blue plaque from English Heritage, opened by celebrated actress and author Meera Syal, to mark the memory of Ayahs, the nursemaids who brought the children of British families to Britain from all the then reaches of the British Empire.
Often abandoned and destitute without money or a passage home the women ended up being taken in by missionaries in King Edward’s Road Hackney, while awaiting a return passage home. Some of them, like Lakshmi the fictional Ayah in ‘When Secrets Set Sail’ never did return to their homelands.
Lakshmi (re-named by her employees as Lucky) lives for a while in the missionary run Ayahs Home in King Edward’s Road. Now contemporary children Imtiaz and Usha are hearing the Ayahs voices whispering to them through the blocked ear of a conch shell that Lakshmi carried with her on her long ship journey to Britain.
Window at The Children’s Bookshop Muswell Hill on publication including pieces of the Ayahs’ stories.
'Piece me together or my story's lost forever' whispers the ghost of the Ayah Lakshmi.
‘When Secrets Set Sail’ was published in 2020 in a semi-Lockdown-time and launched at the Children’s Book Shop, Muswell Hill and by Natasha Junejo at the South Asian Literature Festival with virtual streamed events with Farhanah Mamoojee the inspirational campaigner for the Blue Plaque. It was Blackwell’s Book of the Month.
Events were held together with Farhanah, the wonderful activist who has campaigned tirelessly for the Blue Plaque and built a fascinating contemporary archive on Instagram @ayahshome inviting people ton send photos of Ayahs from around the world.
Farhanah Mamoojee and Sita Brahmachari on the steps of The Ayahs Home.
Sent out as a transition book by a number of schools in Lockdown it is a joy to talk to readers about the story and the Ayahs today. I recently met my editor Tig Wallace to visit Hackney Museum and stand on the steps of Ayahs home, somethhing we were unable to do when the story was published.
Following an incredible programme of work by Portsmouth Grammar School’s Bryony Hart, The National Literacy Trust chose ‘When Secret Set Sail’ as a transition book for children moving from Primary to Secondary school. I am now meeting many hundreds of young readers who will also take part in a story trail this summer out and about discovering the hidden histories of their own streets.
Hackney Museum and Libraries are planning a hybrid event (Live and streamed) on July 11th in which friend and fellow children’s author Safiya Ahmed and myself will be talking about our Ayah stories and sharing the archive inspirations for our fictional tales. Sufiya’s forthcoming story is ‘Searching for Jamila’ .
(Collins – Big Cat series) publishes on July 11th.
Playwright Tanika Gupta’s brilliant play ‘The Empress’ that I was privileged to see in its original stage production at The RSC, which features the story of the Ayahs, is celebrated on the National Curriculum and it would be so exciting to see it staged once again soon.
A programme note in ‘The Empress’ pays homage to Rozina Visram whose seminal and painstaking pre-digital archival work has been an inspiration for all of us who have explored the stories of Ayahs. Rozina’s books have been a treasure trove of poignant and moving research. In ‘When Secrets Set Sail’ I also drew on her research of the history of South Asian doctors in Britain. There is something so wonderful about Farhanah’s instagram archiving and Rozina’s pre-digital archiving coming together in releasing the voices across generations.
In ‘When Secrets Set Sail’ Rozina inspired Dr Devi, the archivist in the Kalighat Gallery in the Victoria and Albert Museum who has held vital pieces of the Ayah Lakshmi’s story, knowing them to be precious. For me personally meeting the real life Rozina Visram at the British Library was a moment in history to treasure.
Now thanks to Farhanah’s tireless activism we can walk in the Ayahs footsteps and see their memory marked with a Blue Plaque by English Heritage after all this time.
Why should a Blue Plaque matter?
As we mark the memory of those lost in the tragic and avoidable fire of Grenfell, on the anniversary of Jo Cox’s murder, consider the hostile environment of this government for refugees and the treatment of Windrush Generation British Citizens treated with such contempt some may ask - why does it matter to mark these memories? It matters because the debts owed to people whose stories connect and collide within the waves of history spanning the former British Empire impact on our presence and our present psyche… on what it is to be British and to find a voice and to ensure that our stories are not lost, written out or forgotten.
