HaroldMel Cooke, Freelance Writer
Gwyneth Harold's first-published novel, Bad Girls in School, follows three girls at the Redeemer College for Young Ladies through a school year of redemption from the brink of expulsion.
And it took nearly a calendar year between her submitting Bad Girls in School to MacMillan in Washington, United States of America, to getting a response from eventual publishers Harcourt in Oxford, England. Even with that wait it was not a matter of total acceptance as, like the bad girls Caledonia Nuttall, Ta Jeeka Brentford and Katreena Melmac who needed to stretch themselves to make it through the year, Harold was required to extend the original submission.
"It started as a short story. I included it in a portfolio of work I was sending blindly to publishers," Harold said. The expansion into a novel, on the request of Harcourt, took a year, Harold saying, "I was not writing full time". The end product, complete with a cover illustration by Jamel Akib, came out in January this year.
In between the short story and the novel, Harold was involved in mentoring, which helped in the writing process. And, with the book's focus, she says "I also had to learn to think about that teenage audience. Now that it is complete and I have got good feedback from educators, I believe that I am prepared to write for that audience."
Avoiding overt sexuality
Part of the focus was avoiding overt sexuality ('oh definitely'), so Harold stops a visit to Caledonia by an older man at the point where 'I get up and let him in'.
"Even the title, my first working title that was not changed, we had discussions with the editors if it was appropriate," she said.
Those familiar with Cross Roads, Kingston, will recognise the names of the three 'bad girls' as streets in the area, with their teacher Elaine Mico's surname having spread way beyond the area and Jamaica. And those familiar with a certain 'cross, angry, miserable' deejay may or may not recognise the name Rodney Price.
Bounty Killer, if you please, the name on the deejay's birth certificate being used for the chairman of the school board. With a 'Canon' before it.
"At the time I was writing, there must have been something about Bounty on the radio," Harold said. "He epitomises someone who has the strength of their convictions, whether you agree with them or not. I wanted that for my churchman. I wanted him to be a strong person. I thought if I should change it, but by the time I had finished the book, he had become Rodney Price. It is just a strong man's name."
The names speak to a beep love of Jamaica. "I really have a strong interest in my country. Most of the street names, the older ones, are for people who have made a contribution to the country," Harold said.
A range of Jamaican society
It is not an idealistic love, though, and by placing the three bad girls in different areas of Kingston, Harold covers a range of Jamaican society. "Kingston is not a big city in the realm of cities and, as a country, we have so much that divides us," Harold said. She points out, though, that in the end it is the girl with the best support system who has the most hope. "I wanted to show that many times it is not the class situation that is a problem.The environment of love, the relationships at home, play a very important role," she said.
Athletics plays a significant role in Jamaica and Caledonia, as a frustrated runner, reflects this.
With her commitment to Jamaica, it is appropriate that Harold is aiming to write a book set in each parish. Among those which have got her literary treatment so far are Clarendon with Secrets of the Rio Minho and St. Catherine with Island of the Lost Boys, these books among the as yet unpublished work.
Harold points out that she has come through the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission system, Bad Girls In School getting an award as a short story then as a book in its expanded form. It also got an honourable mention from the National Book Development Council.
