Island Song: An Evening with Pepsi Demacque-Crockett

Tuesday 18 February 2025, 7.30pm

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We’re delighted to welcome Pepsi Demacque-Crockett to the BME for an evening celebrating the launch of her stunning debut novel, Island Song, inspired by her family’s journey from St Lucia to London.

 

Pepsi has enjoyed a long and fulfilling career within the entertainment industry through the 80s and 90s, as part of the pop band WHAM! and later in the duo Pepsi and Shirlie. Her parents arrived in Britain from the island of Saint Lucia in the mid-1950s and settled in West London. After growing up in London surrounded by a vibrant Caribbean community, Pepsi herself now lives in St Lucia.  In 2021 she co-wrote a memoir with singing partner Shirlie Kemp entitled “Pepsi & Shirlie – It’s All in Black and White”, a story about friendship, love, loss and life in and out of the music industry.

 

From the Caribbean to 1950s London, an epic story of finding home, Island Song is an atmospheric and lyrical debut of compelling storytelling, for fans of Louise Hare and Kristin Hannah.  Is one sister’s dream the other’s sacrifice?

 

Agnes Deterville, growing up in the shadow of post-war hardships on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia, dreams of a new life in England, far away from her small village. Ella, her sister, cautious and watchful, is wary of the world beyond the shores of their sheltered existence. When Agnes is employed as a housekeeper for the wife of an English civil servant, her aspirations take on a new urgency, but in her desperation, she makes a promise that is hard to keep. While Agnes hungrily pursues a different future from the one mapped out for the Deterville sisters, her destiny will be forever tied to those she leaves behind. Will the price of her dreams be one worth paying?

 

Pepsi will be signing copies of her book at the end of the evening.  Books are also on sale at the event from Linghams.

 

Book and ticket combo: £27

Ticket only: £9

 

Please note, only books sold as part of the event will be eligible for signing on the evening.

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Bar open from 6.30pm

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