COVER REVEAL: Little Big Man

Jacaranda Books have revealed the final cover for Little Big Man, the gripping upcoming memoir from actor Stanley J. Browne.

Featuring a young Stanley posing for a family photograph, the cover channels the 1970s backdrop against which this powerful story begins. Born into a Jamaican family in a London suburb, Stanley began rehearsing for the role of survivor from an early age. From birth he knew nothing but a home filled with love and the vibrancy of a Caribbean culture, but this changes when his mother is diagnosed with schizophrenia.

"I must have been around 7 or 8 years old when this photo was taken. I had the world on my shoulders already at that point," Stanley reflects. "You can tell from my eyes and my facial expression that I was an unhappy camper and wore the thousand-yard-stare at such an early age. I felt switched off from the world and distant."

His childhood and adolescence torn apart by mental disorder, Stanley adopts the mantle of ‘man of the house’ — forced to scavenge for food and miss school with his two sisters to care for their baby brother. His life is further fragmented as they yo-yo in and out of the care system.

"I remember the photographer who turned up at my mothers house that day, a complete stranger to me who didn't belong in our house," Stanley recalls. "He'd been brought over to take some pictures of my mum, but suggested at the end of the shoot to do a couple of us kids standing together... I felt extra protective over my sisters then."

Production editor Kamillah Brandes notes: "The vulnerability of young Stanley is immediately evoked, staring directly at the reader, but his gaze also holds a glimpse of the persistence and determination that helped to make Stanley who he is today."

Little Big Man will be published by Jacaranda Books on October 14th. Pre-order your copy here.