Island in the Sun: Growing Up in Jamaica 1948-1954 by Monica Carly 

'Fascinating account by the daughter of a Baptist minister invited to lead a theological college in Jamaica when she was a teenager'

Island in the Sun: Growing Up in Jamaica 1948-1954
By Monica Carly
Self-published*
Reviewed by Paul Beasley Murray

 
As a former short-term BMS missionary in the Congo, I was fascinated Monica Carly’s account of her teenage experience of Jamaica, when her parents took the family to serve with the BMS in Jamaica.

Her father, Keith Tucker had served three Baptist churches in England before accepting the invitation to be Principal of Calabar, the Baptist theological college in Jamaica. As if often the case, Keith seems to have worked all the hours gave, with the result that when he returned to England at the age of 54, he was a broken man, and after eight years of ministry in Minehead he died.
 
As for Monica, the author, she clearly enjoyed her time in Jamaica. Her life was enriched but there were also drawbacks too. Missionary children in particular can have a tough time, although, thank God, the old system of seeing your children only every four or five years is now long gone.



* Copies available from the author monicacarly@yahoo.com; see also her website www.monicacarly.com 

 

Paul Beasley-Murray was ordained in 1970. He was Minister of Altrincham Baptist Church (1973 to 1986), Principal of Spurgeon’s College (1986 to 1992) and Senior Minister of Central Baptist Church, Chelmsford (1993 to 2014)