She left Jamaica as a girl — but the island never let her go.
What she left behind became the story she was destined to tell.
Full Description
At fourteen, she crossed the sea from St. Elizabeth, Jamaica, to the UK — a girl between worlds, carrying stories too heavy for her suitcase.
Decades later, those memories surfaced in her debut novel, The Day I Fell Off My Island (Penguin, 2021) — a haunting and powerful portrait of migration, resilience, and the quiet courage it takes to build a life far from home.
Shortlisted for The Author’s Club Best First Novel, The Paul Torday Award, The RSL Christopher Bland Prize, and The Diverse Book Award, Yvonne Bailey-Smith’s work captures the pulse of displacement — the ache of leaving, the necessity of reinvention, and the endurance of belonging.
But her story doesn’t end on the page.
It continues through her children — literary icon Zadie Smith, comedian and actor Ben Bailey Smith (Doc Brown), and rapper Luc Skyz — each carrying a fragment of her fire across page, stage, and song.
In this episode Yvonne dives into trauma blocking her journey from her much-missed Jamaica to England as a young girl, her career transition from NHS psychotherapist to writer, how an impulsive purchase of land that led to a dramatic death threat was her trigger point at 50, and that anyone can be fabulous at any age.
This conversation reaches beyond writing.
It’s about heritage, identity, and the stories that still breathe beneath the surface — the ones that never fade.
🎧 Listen to The Island, the Journey, and the Story She Had to Tell now on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.
💬 Connect with Yvonne Bailey-Smith
📘 The Day I Fell Off My Island (Penguin, 2021)
📚 Contributor: New Daughters of Africa, edited by Dr Margaret Busby
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