Pilgrim State (book)

Pilgrim State
Author Jacqueline Walker
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Genre Memoir
Publisher Sceptre
Publication date
 April 2008
Media type Print
Pages 353
ISBN 978-0340960806

Pilgrim State is a family memoir written by British activist Jacqueline Walker. It was published in 2008 and tells of a mother with mental illness in the 1940s, and how her family was treated by the social services.

Background

[1][2][3][4]

Summary

It is in three sections, each told from a different point of view: that of the mother, Walker's childhood perspective in the third person, and her first-person re-telling to her own daughter.[3][2]

Release

Pilgrim State was published in April 2008[1] and adapted for audio in November.[5]

Critical response

Louise Carpenter of The Guardian called it "a tragic story about one woman's battle with the social services and how they treated her 'problem family'."[1] Sue Arnold of The Guardian called it "A survival story to warm the chilliest heart."[5] John Harris of The Guardian called it a "story of her mother's mental illness and her family's grim treatment at the hands of social services."[6]

Chris Weedon wrote in Contemporary Women's Writing, "Although literary depictions of the Caribbean migrant in London are not new –- many black and South Asian British writers published since 1970 depict the effects of migration and settlement on first and second generations."[7] Summer Pervez of The Literary London Journal said, "In Pilgrim State, Walker successfully recreates her mother's life in homage to the remarkable woman that she was, despite facing obstacles of prejudice and loss across three continents."[3]

Tamara Gausi of Time Out said, "Pilgrim State details a working-class London that's fast disappearing" and called it "remarkable".[2]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Carpenter, Louise (13 April 2008). "Who are you calling a bad mother?". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 Harris, John (16 April 2016). "Interview: Jacqueline Walker". Hong Kong: Time Out. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 Pervez, Summer (September 2009). "Literary London: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Representation of London". 7 (2). The Literary London Journal. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  4. ↑ Pervez, Summer (September 2009). "Literary London: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Representation of London". 7 (2). The Literary London Journal. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  5. 1 2 Arnold, Sue (14 November 2008). "Pilgrim State". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  6. ↑ Harris, John (16 April 2016). "Inside Momentum: 'The idea that we're all rulebook-thumping Trotskyites is silly'". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  7. ↑ Weedon, Chris (June 2008). "Migration, Identity, and Belonging in British Black and South Asian Women's Writing". 2 (1). Contemporary Women's Writing: 17–35. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
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