[4] Born in Jamaica, of Barbadian parents, Andrea Stuart spent many of her early years there, where her father was Dean of the medical school at the University College of the West Indies.
Described by Kirkus Reviews as "unfailingly interesting",[8] and by The Washington Post as "a comprehensive and truly empathetic biography",[9] it won the Enid McLeod Literary Prize in 2004 and has been translated into several languages.
"[13] Valerie Grove in The Times said: "A riveting story of family, slavery and the sugar trade…[Stuart belongs] in the canon of fine post-colonial writers.
[16] Stuart's work has appeared in numerous newspapers, magazines, and anthologies (including 2019's New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby),[17] and she has been co-editor of Black Film Bulletin and fiction editor of Critical Quarterly.
[21][22] In June 2014, Stuart was named by Ebony magazine as one of "six Caribbean writers you should take some time to discover" (alongside Mervyn Morris, Beverley East, Ann-Margaret Lim, Roland Watson-Grant, and Tiphanie Yanique,[23][24] who were attending the Calabash Literary Festival in Jamaica).