Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? 

I’m Pam Williams, age sixty-three. I live in North London with my husband in the house he grew up in and this summer I will have lived here for thirty years. I have one son and a seven and a half year old granddaughter. Born in Kentish Town, I went to secondary school in Holloway and after taking my A levels was the first pupil there to go on to art school. I completed a foundation year at Chelsea School of Art then studied fashion at London’s prestigious St Martin’s School of Art (now Central St Martin’s). Over the next twenty years I worked as a fashion journalist, magazine fashion editor then freelance stylist. My work gave me lots of opportunity to travel including to fashion shows in Milan and New York and to shoot on location in places such as Hawaii, South Africa, Spain, Miami and the Caribbean. As glamorous as it sounds it was hard work. From 2010 to 2013 I worked as a foster carer. I wanted to do something for my community and there are so many young people who need support. That was followed by a supply TA role in the special school where I still work. I re-trained to become a teacher and gained my PGCE in 2017 and now as well as teaching the young people in our Post 16 class I’m Middle Leader for careers and transitions.

How did you get into writing? 

I’ve always enjoyed writing and filled notebooks with stories from around the age of nine. My first role after art school was working in public relations and I’d write press releases for our clients. Then on magazines I‘d write the fashion news pages and fashion features, often interviewing the women I’d styled. In my spare time I’d still write stories but I began to write poetry too because it felt so much more immediate. 

How easy was it to make a transition from a journalist (Fashion Editor) to an author? 

I’d always kept up my creative writing, but it was something I didn’t share. But what’s the point of writing if no one gets to read it, right? Maya Angelou’s death in 2014 and her phrase ‘dare to try’ spurred me to do just that. I joined the Afrikan Heritage Writers’ group to start sharing my work. I searched out and attended writing workshops and tried to learn as much as I could not just about the craft of writing but how the publishing industry works. In terms of the actual writing, I love playing with words and ultimately that’s what both roles require. The main difference is the approach.

As a fashion journalist my writing needed to be concise and upbeat, to relay information in an engaging way. As an author I can take my time and create evocative scenes.  Whether it’s describing a setting or portraying an emotion, I want to bring it to life so that the reader is ‘there’ with the character and feels what they do. That’s what I strive for. You have won a number of awards for your writing – please tell us about those giving the dates/ year? My short story, ’Soul Talking’ was highly commended and published in the City of Stories anthology (Spread the Word, 2017). I won a place on The London Writers Award 2019, a mentoring programme also run by writers’ development agency Spread the Word after which I was approached by my agent. More recently I was the winner of the Black Ink Magazine New Writing 2022 Prize with my short story, Hibiscus. Funnily enough, both of those short stories were pieces inspired during workshops I’d attended which I then continued to work on. During the London Writers Awards I focused on completing the book that I’d tried for so long to write – even though I’d written three others which need to be finished.

Your debut novel, A Trace of Sun, was released on March 1. How excited are you about this and give a brief synopsis on the book? 

I’m ecstatic and still stunned to know that my book will soon be out in the world. I can’t wait to walk into a bookshop and see it on the shelves. I’ve dreamt of being a published author since my teens when I read Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings although in those days I didn’t truly believe it could happen. Not to a black girl from North London. It wasn’t something I’d heard of happening. A Trace of Sun is about the lives of Cilla and Raef, a mother and son who are separated when she leaves Grenada to join her husband in London to find work in 1960. A pregnant Cilla takes her younger son with her, but has to leave eight year old Raef behind. She has no idea it will be seven years before she will be reunited with him. When Raef arrives in England he’s a teenager filled with resentment compounded by having a sister he doesn’t know and who he feels has taken his place in the family. Then in his twenties Raef suffers a psychotic episode and his actions tear the family apart for the second time. 

Fifteen years on, it’s 1994. Cilla and Raef have moved forward in their separate lives. But each has harboured a secret. The revelation of Cilla’s makes Raef question all he thought he knew of his identity.

Your novel, which spans over thirty years, is inspired in part by the experience of your own family migration. Share that experience with us? 

There are definite parallels. My mother came to London in 1960 bringing my brother who was two and a half years old, and pregnant with me. But she left four children behind.  

I first met two of my siblings when I was seven and they joined us in London. By then my two eldest sisters were over sixteen and because of changes in immigration laws were too old to come. I met them when I visited Grenada aged nine. 

My sister and brother had to adapt to life in England and seemed to do so well. But in his mid-twenties my brother was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. 

Those are the two themes I used to weave my story of Cilla and Raef. I wanted to explore the emotional trauma of separation that so many people from the Caribbean endured and consider how that might have impacted Raef’s mental health.

How significant is it having your book’s publication coinciding with Grenada’s 50th year of independence and what does that mean to you personally? 

I think it’s quite fitting. In my family I am known as the ‘English one’ since I was the only one born here (two months after my mum arrived) but being published so close to this milestone anniversary is a link to my heritage that I’m proud of and hopefully it will be something my granddaughter will remember.

What message do you want the reader to take away from A Trace of Sun?

Family separation was experienced by many West Indian families but I don’t think it’s something that has been widely spoken about; and the emotional impact of that separation even less so. That generation – our parents, grandparents – just got on with life and kept their feelings to themselves. But it’s important for our stories to be shared – as in Nadine White’s documentary ‘Barrel Children.’ Those stories are our history and need to be discussed and acknowledged. By everyone. 

As an educator and now a published author of colour and a woman, how will you be celebrating World Book Day (March 7) and International Women’s Day (March 8)?

Having just seen the Malorie Blackman exhibition at the British Library, we’ll celebrate her and her brilliant books across both days.

What’s next for Pam Williams?

Well, I recently completed my second novel. Now my agent is working on finding a publisher, so I’ll have to wait and see if it gets snapped up. 

Is there anything else you would like to add?

A Trace of Sun began life as my mother’s biography, more than thirty years ago. When trying to write it, I got stuck time and time again and kept putting it aside – sometimes for years as l was busy with work and my family. But over time I reworked it, then fictionalised it, changed and removed characters; and I honed my craft too. I’m so glad I didn’t give up. Now I’m proof that you’re never too old to pursue your dreams.

A Trace of Sun (2024) by Pam Williams and published by Legend Press is available in all major bookshops now.

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