Saly spent most of her childhood being isolated due to her awkwardness. She found it difficult to be social with anyone because of her battle with Dissociative Identity Disorder. Her mind was always in one reality, and out of another; all the way into her womanhood, motherhood, and marriage. She appears to be functioning just fine, until the effects of old-fashioned and misguided beliefs about the treatment and diagnoses of mental health amongst Black people finally casts a net over Saly, capturing her in a reality she can’t escape, causing her to become a danger to herself…and others.

Berthas is a novel exploring the Black British Caribbean Identity of Black British Caribbean Women and the notion of ‘blackness.’  Set in both the UK and the West Indies, Berthas explores the issues of hybridity, diaspora, and duality; following four women over four generations. The imagery presented is vivid and the language is lyrical. This emotive tale begins with the death of a matriarch and ends in the birth of her granddaughter.

Berthas rests within the oral tradition of the Caribbean as well as incorporating the traditional superstitious beliefs that survived African Slavery, combined and compared with the Christian religious beliefs of the West, and is very much set in the modern world. The language also reflects the hybridity of the people, combining English with Patois to create a new language for a new people.