A big rally of women workers would be the best thing to sweep the cobwebs from certain brains and dust out the eyes so they can see better.
Una Marson, originally from Jamaica, was an experienced journalist and published writer by the time she started working at the ±«Óãtv in 1939.
Her first role in the Corporation was working at the Alexandra Palace television studios. When war broke out and the ±«Óãtv’s TV services were shutdown, she transferred to radio to work both behind-the-scenes and on-air.
Marson joined the ±«Óãtv full-time in March 1941 as a Programme Assistant in the "Empire Programmes" department. Her interest in poetry soon led her to develop Caribbean Voices, a weekly feature within the Calling the West Indies series, which started towards the end of the War.
It included poems and short stories by Caribbean authors, many of whom were either unknown or just beginning to establish an international reputation. She gave these voices an international platform. The series would continue until 1958.
Her managers wrote privately of her being an "excellent producer", however, her pioneering role with Caribbean Voices was cut short.
In May 1946, she was diagnosed with schizophrenia. The ±«Óãtv had granted her an exceptional period of sick leave prior to this and helped her return to Jamaica, so she could benefit from what one manager called "her home environment".
Una Marson died in 1965. A plaque was installed, in her honour, at her London address in 2009.
You speak good English little brown girl, how is it you speak English as though it belonged to you?
