An extraordinarily powerful story, The Long Song leaves its reader.

While Andrea Levy, the author herself, has taken on an executive producer role. Together they live through the bloody Baptist War and the violent and chaotic end of slavery. This three-part miniseries based on Andrea Levy’s award-winning novel about the end of slavery in Jamaica follows July (Tamara Lawrance, King Charles III ), an indomitable, young slave who works. The TV drama will star Tamara Lawrance, Hayley Atwell, Jack Lowden and Sir Lenny Henry and is directed by Mahalia Belo. The three-part adaption will air on BBC One on Tuesday 18th December and will run for three consecutive days. Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and a Sunday Times bestseller, The Long Song is now coming to TV. It follows a defiant, wily young woman, July, who is born a slave, but ends up as the mother of a gentleman.” But far from being a harrowing tale of misery that one might expect from such a history, The Long Song is a story of hope, passion, determination, and humour in the face of adversity.

The BBC press centre explains that “The Long Song opens just as 300 years of slavery are finally coming to an end on the British-ruled island of Jamaica. Prompted and provoked by her son's persistent questioning, July's resilience and heartbreak are gradually revealed in this extraordinarily powerful story of slavery, revolution, freedom, and love.The Long Song is a novel by Andrea Levy about the last days of slavery in Jamaica and the early years of freedom that followed. The Long Song Book by Andrea Levy Based on the award-winning novel by the late Andrea Levy ( Small Island ), the fictional story is inspired by Levy’s family history. Taught to read and write so that she can help her mistress run the business, July remains bound to the plantation despite her 'freedom.' It is the arrival of a young English overseer, Robert Goodwin, that will dramatically change life in the great house for both July and her mistress. Together they live through the bloody Baptist war, followed by the violent and chaotic end of slavery. Resourceful and mischievous, July soon becomes indispensable to her mistress. Caroline Mortimer, a recently transplanted English widow, decides to move her into the great house and rename her 'Marguerite.' The child of a field slave on the Amity sugar plantation, July lives with her mother until Mrs. Told in the irresistibly willful and intimate voice of Miss July, with some editorial assistance from her son, Thomas, The Long Song is at once defiant, funny, and shocking. With The Long Song, Levy once again reinvents the historical novel. It won both the Orange Prize and the Whitbread Book of the Year Award, and has sold over a million copies worldwide.

Small Island introduced Andrea Levy to America and was acclaimed as 'a triumph' (San Francisco Chronicle).

The long story andrea levy