Charlotte Williams

Jessica Mayhew has enough problems without getting wrapped up in her patients' drama. Her separation from her husband doesn't seem as amicable as she once thought, and her daughters are drifting away as fast as they're growing up. But her new client—chic, moody, obsessive painter Elinor Powell—has a way of drawing people in, and soon Jessica's getting involved with what seems to be a most artful murder. Elinor blames herself for keeping a valuable portrait in her studio, where her mother was killed in an unsolved robbery. A bout of claustrophobia is interfering with her work, as is her deepening paranoia about her twin sister, Isobel, and her brother-in-law, Blake, a ruthless art dealer. But when Jessica meets the entire unhappy family at the debut show of Blake's protégé—a reclusive ex-miner producing startling canvases in the Black Mountains of southeast Wales—she starts to wonder whether Elinor might be on to something. Might there be more to her mother's death? Could Blake have been involved? And just what's going on in those lonely hills? Eerie and grippingly suspenseful, Black Valley is a novel rich in character, intrigue, and harrowing dangers.

A Novel

Black Valley

One woman’s quest to discover the dark secret at the heart of a family Actor Gwydion Morgan’s dramatic appearance at Jessica Mayhew’s psychotherapy practice coincides with a turbulent time in her own life - her husband has just revealed that he’s spent the night with a much younger woman. Gwydion, son of the famous Evan Morgan, is good looking and talented but mentally fragile, tormented by an intriguing phobia. Jessica is determined to trace the cause of his distress. So when his mother phones to say he is suicidal, Jessica decides to make a house call. The Morgans live in a grand cliff-top mansion overlooking a rocky bay with its own private jetty. It’s a remote and somewhat sinister place. On her visit, Jessica finds out that an au pair who looked after Gwydion as a child drowned in the bay in mysterious circumstances. Could it be that Gwydion witnessed her death? In her quest to help her client, Jessica finds herself becoming embroiled in the Morgans’ poisonous family dynamic. At the same time, she has to deal with the demands of her own domestic life: her struggle to keep her marriage intact, as well as her older daughter’s increasingly defiant behaviour. And then, of course, there is the growing attraction she feels towards her new client . . .

The House on the Cliff

'It is Williams's Welshness that makes the examination of her mixed-race identity distinctive, but it is the humour, candour and facility of her style that make it exceptional . . . an engaging and perceptive voice describing an engrossing and particular personal story.' – Gary Younge 'In its exploration of geographical, racial and cultural dislocation, Sugar and Slate is in the finest tradition of work to have emerged from the black diaspora in recent times.' – The Guardian 'Within this review, I can only scrape the surface of the many dimensions of Williams' memoir, so I strongly encourage you to read this precious book for yourself, and find those parts of it which speak most to you.' – Sarah Tanburn, Nation.Cymru 'Warmly recommended to any curious minds, at 20 years old Sugar And Slate still speaks to us in these modern times, helping to ensure marginal voices remain heard.' – Buzz A mixed-race young woman, the daughter of a white Welsh-speaking mother and black father from Guyana, grows up in a small town on the coast of north Wales. From there she travels to Africa, the Caribbean and finally back to Wales. Sugar and Slate is a story of movement and dislocation in which there is a constant pull of to-ing and fro-ing, going away and coming back with always a sense of being 'half home'. This is both a personal memoir and a story that speaks to the wider experience of mixed-race Britons. It is a story of Welshness and a story of Wales and above all a story for those of us who look over our shoulder across the sea to some other place. It would have been so much easier if I had been able to say, 'I come from Africa,' then maybe added under my breath, 'the long way round.' Instead, the Africa thing hung about me like a Welsh Not, a heavy encumbrance on my soul; a Not-identity; an awkward reminder of what I was or what I wasn't. Once at a seminar, one of those occasions when the word Diaspora crops up too many times and where there aren't too many of us present, the only other Diaspora-person sought me out. His eyes caught mine in recognition of something I can't say I could name, yet I must have responded because later as we chatted over fizzy water and conference packs, he offered quite uninvited and with all the authority of an African: 'People like you? You gotta get digging and if you dig deep enough you're gonna find Africa.'

Sugar and Slate

A little girl searches for that special something to make her home complete. When she visits the animal shelter she finds the answer. Can Pablo the rescue cat rescue her?

Pablo the Rescue Cat

This book critically explores ways of thinking about the city and its relevance for the profession of social work. It provides a colourful illustration of practice drawing on examples of social work responses to a range of issues emerging from the unprecedented scale, density and pace of change in cities. The associated challenges posed for social work include: the increased segregation of the poor, the crisis of affordable housing, homelessness, gentrification, ageing, displacement as a result of migrations, and the breakdown of social support and care. Drawing on multiple disciplines, this groundbreaking work shows that these familiar features of the twenty-first century can be counteracted by the positive aspects of the city: its innovation, creativity and serendipity. It has a redistributive, caring and cohesive potential. The city can provide new opportunities and resources for social work to influence, to collaborate, to foster participation and involvement, and to extend its social justice mandate. The book shows that the city represents a critical arena in terms of the future of social work intervention and social work identity. In doing so, it will be of great interest to students and scholars of social work, social policy, community work and urban studies.

Urban Themes in 21st-Century Social Work

Social Work and the City

The authentic Memoirs of Mrs. Williams: a domestic and pathetic tale

Mekada Graham

It is an acknowledged if not accepted fact that all European societies are being fundamentally transformed, and indeed perceptively unsettled, by increased migrations across nations and by the asserted presence of established minorities within their borders. The scale and speed at which these transformations have taken place have brought in their wake considerable social impacts and no small measure of fear and anxiety. Encounters with such diversity are part and parcel of the social work task, and learning how to negotiate them should be a de facto aspect of the training and continuous professional development of social workers and other social professions. However, the moral and political dimensions of the role, scope and nature of the social work task in responding appropriately to these changed and changing realities are rather more contested. This volume addresses many dimensions of the response to issues of race and ethnicity in social work practice in Europe. It extends the debates on inter-cultural and race equality practice in social work through a stimulating and innovative collection of contributions. This book was originally published as a special issue of the European Journal of Social Work.

Race and Ethnic Relations

Social Work in Europe

The warm and sensitive autobiographical story of a Welsh-African mixed-race woman, whose unusual upbringing in both parent's homelands together with further travels to the Caribbean became a continuous quest for her identity.

Therapist-turned-reluctant detective Jessica Mayhew is on the trail once again in this smart, fast-paced novel of suspense from Charlotte Williams—author of the debut The House on the Cliff—a tautly written psychological thriller that ventures deep into the recesses of the mind. Jessica Mayhew has enough problems without getting wrapped up in her patients’ drama. Her separation from her husband doesn’t seem as amicable as she once thought, and her daughters are drifting away as fast as they’re growing up. But her new client—chic, moody, obsessive painter Elinor Powell—has a way of drawing people in and soon Jessica’s getting involved with what seems to be a most artful murder. Elinor presents a rare professional challenge. She blames herself for keeping a valuable portrait in her studio, where her mother was killed in an unsolved robbery. An attack of claustrophobia is interfering with her work, as is her deepening paranoia about her twin sister, Isobel, and her brother-in-law, Blake, a ruthless art dealer. But when Jessica meets the entire unhappy family at the debut show of Blake’s protégé—a reclusive ex-miner producing gloomy canvases in the Black Mountains of southeast Wales—she starts to wonder whether Elinor might be on to something. Might there be more to her mother’s death? Could Blake have been involved? And just what’s going on in those lonely hills? Set against the otherworldly Welsh countryside, Black Valley is a novel rich in character, intrigue, and harrowing dangers.

Actor Gwydion Morgan's dramatic appearance at Jessica Mayhew's psychotherapy practice coincides with a turbulent time in her own life - her husband has just admitted he's been unfaithful. Her new client is good-looking and talented, but tormented by an intriguing phobia, which Jessica is determined to investigate. On an emergency visit to the Morgans' remote cliff-top mansion, Jessica discovers that Gwydion's former au pair was mysteriously drowned in the bay nearby. Could the tragedy somehow be linked to Gwydion's disorder? As the quest to help her client deepens, Jessica finds herself becoming embroiled in the Morgans' poisonous family dynamic. At the same time, she has to deal with the demands of her own domestic life: her struggle to keep her marriage intact, as well as her older daughter's increasingly defiant behaviour. And then, of course, there is the growing attraction she feels towards her new client . . .

Maori society and all of New Zealand bear a heavy cost from criminal offending. Maori are particularly at risk of offending and of victimisation. There are many influences on society that underlie this problem, both historical and contemporary. So far, New Zealand governments have not been able tackle the issue. Many would argue that through the lack of policy and effective implementation, the government itself has been a contributory factor. The forces of history and current upheavals in state sector management have come together and the lack of recent institutional memory has impeded a concerted effort to address the problem through working with Maori. This study looks at the recent history of Maori and criminal justice from the perspective of government policy and management, and discusses some of the barriers to change and progress that this reveals. It argues that progress will be difficult unless attention is paid to management issues, to consistent policy direction and to bringing the debate away from generalisation and position taking to consideration of concrete issues and practical responses including enduring working relationships with Maori to address the problems.

Maori and Criminal Justice Since 1980

The Too-hard Basket

Sharlene Nipperess

Critical multicultural practice, rather than being a specialism, is integral to Australian social work. Drawing on critical race theory, critical multiculturalism, intersectionality and critical reflection as practice theory, this major new edited collection challenges many of the dominant assumptions of cross-cultural social work and provides instead a new model of transformative engagement. Key concepts are considered, including identity, culture, diversity and superdiversity, how power and privilege shape everyday interactions and what is meant by citizenship in the contemporary context. Part One explores the changing nature of multicultural practice in Australia, including our society's changing demographic profile, the impact of asylum and refugee migrations, race and racism and cultural identity. Indigenous perspectives and the relationship with multicultural practice are examined, together with the ethical and legal basis for multicultural practice. This part concludes with an outline of the editors' framework for critical multicultural practice. Part Two draws on contributions from a range of practitioners and offers new perspectives on diverse fields, including child protection, mental health, disability, ageing, homelessness and rural and regional practice. Featuring case studies and insights drawn from across the spectrum of practice, this book is a vital resource for all social workers practising in Australia today. '[A] rich and nuanced analysis of what is happening at the interfaces of our work and the lives of Australian citizens, [it] articulates ways forward that are genuine, bold and empathetic.' From the foreword by Professor Kerry Arabena, The University of Melbourne

New perspectives and practices

Critical Multicultural Practice in Social Work

Paul O'Leary

Neil Evans

The population of Wales is the product of successive waves of immigration. During the industrial revolution many diverse groups were attracted into Wales by the economic opportunities it offered – notably Irish people, black and minority ethnic sailors from many parts of the world, and people from continental Europe. More recently, there has been immigration from the New Commonwealth as well as refugees from wars and oppression in several parts of the world. This volume engages with this experience by offering perspectives from historians, sociologists, cultural analysts and social policy experts. It provides analyses of the changing patterns of immigration and their reception including hostile and violent acts. It also considers the way in which Welsh attitudes to minorities have been shaped in the past through the activity of missionaries in the British Empire, and how these have permeated literary perceptions of Wales. In the contemporary world, this diverse population has implications for social policy which are explored in a number of contexts, including in rural Wales. The achievements of minorities in sport and in building a multi-racial community in Butetown, for instance, which is now writing its own history, are recognised. The first edition of this book was widely welcomed as the essential work on the topic; over a decade later much has changed and the volume responds with several new chapters and extensive revisions that engage the impact of devolution on policy in Wales.

Revisiting Ethnic Diversity in a Devolved Wales

A Tolerant Nation?

Evelyn A. Williams

Denis Williams, painter, teacher, novelist, archaeologist, and cultural administrator, is one of the founding fathers of modern Guyana. His involvement in several of the country's key cultural institutions and his pioneering work on Guyana's founding peoples ensures him a special place in the country's history books. Williams also contributed to the outpouring of literature that accompanied the awakening consciousness of Caribbean nations and their drive for independence. His literary work is seminal in depicting the character of the Caribbean person and landscape, and the nature of ancestral (African and Afro-Caribbean) identities. His studies of African art and culture encouraged the young nation of Guyana to turn away from Western epistemologies and to pay serious intellectual attention to other origins. His research into the archaeology and culture of the Amerindian population of Guyana and beyond laid the pathway for further scholarship. The essays assembled here bring together eminent scholars and commentators to offer authoritative analyses of the various aspects of Williams's work û artistic, academic, and literary û and capture the rationale for, the interconnections between, and the evident trajectory of Williams's life work as the epitome of the changing nature of the Caribbean condition. As well as wide-ranging biographical essays, and studies of Williams's activities as a painter, the collection contains a comprehensive primary and secondary bibliography, a generous selection of colour plates, and individual essays devoted to the published novels (Other Leopards; The Third Temptation) and other published and unpublished fiction, and to Williams's archaeological masterpiece, Prehistoric Guiana. Charlotte Williams is Professor of Social Justice, Keele University. Her research incorporates postcolonial and critical race theory, feminism, and critical perspectives in social policy. Her publications include A Tolerant Nation? Exploring Ethnic Diversity in Wales (co-edited, 2003) and Sugar and Slate (2002). Evelyn A. Williams, a former teacher of art and design, is a practising painter with a recently established studio in Guyana, where she applies the principles of Mbari. Current research interests include Denis Williams's artworks and the vernacular architecture of the Village Movement.

Charlotte Williams

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