Description
“It is a world of struggle and grace which has all but vanished, leaving little more than stories and echoes.”
Born into a divided St Lucian family, Dylyn Riley Dalton carries within her a legacy forged by empire — one of cane fields and colour hierarchies, of religious divisions and rigid class structures, of family fractures and fierce female resilience. In Scattered Memories of a Troublemaker, she tells her story with unsparing honesty and vibrant humour — a memoir as spirited and complex as the life she’s lived.
A Caribbean Life Spanning Continents and Eras
From a childhood shaped by colonial contradictions and family secrets, Dylyn’s early years unfold in a St. Lucian household teeming with laughter, gossip, ghost stories, and generational tensions. Raised by her formidable grandmother after a scandalous family rift, she is caught between two homes — and two very different kinds of love.
“Raised by her formidable grandmother from early infancy, Dylyn finds herself the focus of a tragic family feud and grows up between two homes and two kinds of love.”
Her grandfather, a proud Barbadian brought to St. Lucia to manage the Castries waterworks, embodies both the dreams of upward mobility and the devastating precarity of respectability under colonial rule — a theme that reverberates through Dylyn’s life.
From Beauty Queen to Cultural Pioneer
From convent classrooms and Carnival streets to being a contestant in the Miss West Indies pageant in Port of Spain, Dylyn’s early experiences reveal a woman coming of age at the crossroads of tradition and rebellion. Her journey leads her to post-war London, where she builds a new life as a writer, mother, and activist — helping shape the cultural and political landscape for Britain’s first generation of Caribbean-born youth.
In a city rife with racism and resistance, she becomes part of the struggle — raising a family, writing a play, protesting injustice, and living boldly in the margins and mainstream of British society.
A Life in Vivid Vignettes
Told in candid, richly textured vignettes, Scattered Memories of a Troublemaker is a memoir that leaps off the page with unforgettable characters, sharp social observation, and the rhythms of Caribbean speech and storytelling. Dylyn’s voice is warm, mischievous, unflinching — always anchored in love.
“In warm and candid vignettes Dylyn pieces together a life scattered across islands and continents and finds her way home.”
Why Readers Will Love This Book
A powerful memoir of Caribbean diaspora and Black British history
A deeply personal account of family, identity, migration, and resilience
Woven with humour, heartbreak, and unforgettable cultural detail
Features rare insight into matriarchal Caribbean households, colonial fallout, and life as a Black woman in 1950s–70s Britain
Ideal for readers of Andrea Levy, Audre Lorde, and Lemn Sissay
About the Author
Now in her nineties, Dylyn Riley Dalton is a storyteller, playwright, and quiet revolutionary. Her life has taken her from the sugar estates of St Lucia to the RAF in post-war Britain, and from the streets of London to royal receptions in Ghana. A lifelong troublemaker — in the very best sense — she has lived a life of creative resistance and fierce joy
Order Now
If you believe the personal is political, if you know stories carry survival, and if you’re ready to meet a woman who has lived boldly across every boundary placed before her — this is the memoir for you.
Buy now and journey across time, oceans, and identity — with a troublemaker as your guide.
By Dylyn Riley Dalton
ISBN (Paperback): 978-1-916955-95-0
ISBN (Hardback): 978-1-916955-96-7
Pages: 306
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