Lisa Smith’s debut novel, Jamaica Road, captures the complicated intersections of love, race, and belonging in 1980s London. At its heart is Daphne, the only Black girl in her school, who has learned that staying invisible is the safest way to navigate classmates’ racism. Her world shifts when she meets Connie Small, a new Jamaican immigrant unafraid to embrace his heritage. Their friendship deepens, their families intertwine, and amid protests, police raids, and the constant threat of deportation, love blooms.
Though rooted in the past, Jamaica Road feels startlingly contemporary. In a conversation with author Donna Hemans, Smith reflects on the origins of the book, the echoes of history in today’s politics, and why a teenage romance became the perfect lens for exploring resilience and identity.
On writing about the 1980s
Smith didn’t set out to write a period piece. The idea began in a creative writing class with the prompt to describe an outsider. She recalled a boy from her childhood in South London—his worn uniform, his Jamaican accent, and the contrast with her own efforts to blend in. From that memory, Daphne’s voice emerged.
“Looking back on the ’70s and ’80s,” Smith says, “I found that while some things have changed, others remain the same.”
On echoes of the present
Her research, grounded in old newspapers and political speeches, revealed how closely the past mirrors today. She points to Margaret Thatcher’s 1979 comments about Britain being “swamped” by foreigners, rhetoric that unsettled her grandmother and tightened immigration laws. The parallels to current debates about immigration in both the UK and the U.S. were impossible to ignore.
“By the ’80s, the contributions of immigrants who had come to rebuild Britain seemed forgotten,” she explains.
On identity and belonging
Through Daphne and Connie’s parallel journeys—one a British-born Jamaican teenager, the other an undocumented immigrant—Smith explores what it means to belong. She recalls her own adolescence, caught between Black and British identities at a time when the media often refused to call Black youth British at all.
That tension is woven into the book, where characters grapple with whether “home” is found in Britain, the Caribbean, or somewhere in between.
On resistance and youth activism
Jamaica Road also highlights the resilience of young people who demanded change. From unemployment struggles to the protests following the 1981 New Cross fire, Black British youth insisted that survival required more than simply being “good citizens.”
“The Windrush generation endured enormous challenges,” Smith says. “But their children realized they had to push back. That spirit of resistance is what drives the novel’s young characters.”
On love across divides
Despite the heavy themes, Smith chose to tell this story through the intimacy of teenage relationships. Daphne’s romance with Mark, a boy from a prejudiced family, reflects the messy realities of multicultural cities where attraction and bigotry coexist. Smith drew from her own experiences of interracial friendships that were complicated but possible.
Later, Mark’s journey toward greater understanding suggests that change, though slow, is possible.
On community and survival
Family and community shape the novel just as much as politics. Daphne’s extended household, crowded but protective, mirrors the setups common among Caribbean migrants coping with limited housing.
“Those homes offered safety and understanding,” Smith notes, “and a sense that, despite the world outside, you weren’t alone.”
On self-determination
The phrase that recurs throughout the book—“we run tings, tings nuh run we”—encapsulates its message. For Smith, it’s about self-determination in the face of systemic pressure to assimilate.
“Even British-born people like me didn’t feel we completely belonged,” she says. “That mantra reminds us to define ourselves, not let others define us.”
Why Jamaica Road matters now
Though set more than 40 years ago, Jamaica Road resonates today in its portrayal of immigrants navigating hostile systems, youth demanding justice, and individuals finding love in fractured worlds. Smith’s debut is as much about history as it is about the timeless pursuit of identity, belonging, and self-worth.