Diver’s Daughter: A Tudor Story
Summary:
Eve Cartright is a twelve-year old Black girl growing up in Britain in the 16th century. She announces her story early in the book: she’s been in deep water three times, and twice she has nearly drowned. When Eve almost drowns the first time, her mother dives in to save her, and her great skill is noticed by a man George Symons, who needs skilled divers to reach treasure in sunken boats off the coast of Southampton. This is the beginning of a big journey for Eve and her mother: a journey that might lead them to riches or to a different set of troubles instead.
Edited by: Dublin City University
Comment:
This is an important book, based on historical fact, that demonstrates the presence of Black people in Britain throughout the centuries, a fact that is often omitted from historical narrative, particularly in the history young people are exposed to. Both female characters are portrayed as strong and independent, and Eve’s mother’s depression demonstrates how profoundly this affects a person who is typically strong and resourceful. Analogies of drowning and being lost underwater recur throughout the book: Eve describes her mother’s depressive episodes as sinking and surfacing, and drowning is also used as a larger symbol for the voices of the many other enslaved people lost under the water, and as an expression of the depth of Black diver Jacques Francis’s anger. The book is also concerned with other marginalised people in Britain: in Eve’s obsessive worry about the women who are tortured in the pillories because of their outsider status, and the disabled child her mother looks after in Southhampton.