Small Island

Returning to England after the war Gilbert Joseph is treated very differently now that he is no longer in an RAF uniform. Joined by his wife Hortense; he rekindles a friendship with Queenie who takes in Jamaican lodgers. Can their dreams of a better life in England overcome the prejudice they face? Hortense shared Gilbert's dream of leaving Jamaica and coming to England to start a better life. But when she at last joins her husband; she is shocked by London's shabbiness and horrified at the way the English live. Even Gilbert is not the man she thought he was. Queenie's neighbours do not approve of her choice of tenants; and neither would her husband; were he there. Through the stories of these people; Small Island explores a point in England's past when the country began to change.