Delivering a Golden Child

My name is Claire Adam and my first novel, Golden Child, is set in Trinidad.

I'm one of those people who look like they could come from anywhere.

People all round the world come up to me with, "Hablas espanol?" And they're so disappointed when I tell them no.

I come from Antigua Drive, Federation Park. I lived in Trinidad until I was 18. I live in south-east London (London Underground) Zone 3, England, now.

I got there in 2000 and didn't plan on staying so long.

In 2005, when we got the news London would host the 2012 Olympics, my very first thought was, "I'll be gone by then!" But it's 2019 and I'm coming up to the 20-year mark.

I'm the youngest of four kids and the only one born in Trinidad, not Jamaica.

A few years ago, my parents sold up and moved to London, about half-an-hour's drive away.

We go round by them for a Sunday lunch my mother cooks. My dad was born in Trinidad, my mother in Ireland. She (Mary Adam) was a Trini to the Bone a few years ago.

Being half of the first-ever parent-and-child Trini to the Bone couple is fun!

I've read a good few “Bone Trini” profiles and they're so good. The first one I read was about a doubles man.

My mother is Irish, so Catholicism was a foregone conclusion for us. My dad's family was mainly Muslim, but I don't remember anyone ever going to mosque or temple.

I always say Catholicism was a force for good in my life. I'm not a believer now – but I still feel the urge to finish that with a “praise God.”

I'm married to a nice man from New Zealand, and we have two children, aged 12 and nine.

The flight from London is long – 24 hours!

But the kids are always asking when we're next going to NZ, because they want the 24-hour journey with meals brought to them and non-stop TV!

We didn't study race in our household at all. I knew my mother was white, being Irish, but I only learnt my father was Indian when I heard my mother describe him over the phone as "a short Indian man."

People sometimes ask, “What, in a mixed-race couple, how could you not talk about race at home?”

But I think my parents took the perspective of: “What is there to discuss?” I'm grateful.

We used to go to Ireland for the summer every three years to visit my mother's family in County Cork.

Our cousins used to drop us to the airport and then go up to the waving gallery to wave as we walked across the tarmac.

My brother went to Princeton, one sister went to University of Pennsylvania, the next sister went to McGill, and I went to Brown.

We had all been pretty dedicated students at school. My brother went to St Mary's, the girls all went to SJC PoS.

We worked hard, no doubt about it. One summer, we went to Ireland, and my brother filled his whole suitcase with A-Level maths and physics textbooks, hardly any clothes! I remember him studying all day at the dining table. He won the Gold Medal.

I didn't have any problems that came about because of race. I mean, I had a relatively privileged upbringing in Trinidad, and so when I got to the US, I was holding my head pretty high.

I didn't feel inferior to anyone, and if anyone made microaggressions to me, it probably went straight over my head.

My siblings and I have talked about how we all went from TT to fancy Ivy League schools and were the equal of any; if anything, we were ahead of them, academically.

The Americans had all this fancy-schmancy stuff in high school, summer projects and state-of-the-art everything, and we had the quite basic facilities available in TT in the 1980s.

I realise now it was the excellent teachers we had. Trinidad should be proud of that.

When I first realised our evolution was going to put us on the pathway to becoming robots, I was a bit freaked out. But I've come to accept it now. The next step is human-computer hybrids and we're nearly there already.

Who knows what will be possible? A stage of our evolution will come when there is no death at all, and that's going to bring lots of interesting (choices).

But I'm glad to be a human and, for me personally, I will choose to resist roboticisation, and accept mortality.

People reading this will probably think, "This lady is crazy!" but check me back in five or ten years. It will become clearer then, if it's not already clear now.

I get most homesick when I see everybody gearing up for Carnival! Other countries don't have anything like TT Carnival.

Having said that, when I'm actually in Trinidad during Carnival, I'm like, "This is too noisy! There's nowhere to get any peace and quiet!"

(Sex and the City star) Sarah Jessica Parker has been great. She's an avid reader, and genuinely loves Golden Child!

The book had already been picked up by Hogarth and SJ was reading Hogarth manuscripts, to see which ones she felt most passionate about, and she picked this one (for her own imprint).

The collaboration has been wonderful. The media stuff in the US was fun, and not as scary as I thought it might be. It's been a pleasure.

The only problem is, I can't keep up with the e-mails – apologies to anyone still waiting for a reply – but it's quite a nice problem to have.

I'm enjoying the NGC Bocas Lit Fest that I've watched from afar many times.

It's an honour to be invited.

I watched a few poetry slams by livestream on Facebook in past years and can't wait to be in the room with these energetic amazing poets.

The best thing about writing Golden Child is that it's DONE!

For many years, I didn't know if I would ever see my way to the end; I felt stuck in a maze.

To me, a Trini is somebody not to be underestimated. TT means the place where I grew up. I feel lucky to have been born here, to have grown up here.

I sometimes feel very homesick for Trinidad, but I know I won't come back here to live.

Read a longer version of this feature on Wednesday at www.BCPires.com