Pot's House Party
What happens when two proud Caribbean sisters arrive in a cold English kitchen determined to bring warmth, colour, music, and flavour back to life?
Pot and Lid soon discover that not everyone welcomes change. As unlikely friendships begin to blossom and old attitudes are gently challenged, the kitchen comes alive with dancing vegetables, singing spices, colourful characters, and plenty of mischief.
Filled with humour, rhythm, unforgettable characters, and the rich flavours of the Caribbean, Pot's House Party is a joyful celebration of culture, community, belonging, and the magic that happens when people open their hearts to one another.
So, pull up a chair...
The party is just about to begin.
Genre: Adult Fiction | Cultural Fiction
Read by Karen Huggins
Read the Extract
“Did you hear sis? We’re going to England.” Pot was so excited she span around and around until she almost flew Lid off. “England, sis. We are going to see the King and go to the palace and dine with all the finest”. Pot couldn’t retain her excitement and kept spinning as if she was a prima donna ballerina.
“Stop spinning Pot”, Lid screamed, “you are making me nauseous”. Lid was more cynical about going to England and didn’t understand why Pot got so excited about leaving their beautiful Island. This is their home, the place where family gathered and friends dropped by. This the home where the tears of joy and pain ran into the creaky floor boards and was marched through the house by barefoot children. How could Pot be so happy to leave this behind. Lid looked around at the walls painted yellow, the scuffs from furniture moved from one place to the other leaving memories from where they were displaced. This was it. We are now being displaced. As Lids thoughts grew deep into her memories, she sucked her tears back inside so they wouldn’t fall on the creaky floor boards...
Why I wrote this story...
I wrote Pot’s House Party from a place of nostalgia, remembering the homes, kitchens, conversations and everyday objects that surrounded many of us growing up.
But beneath the nostalgia is a much bigger story.
It is a story about migration, memory and what happens when cultures meet. Sometimes they collide, sometimes they mix and integrate, and sometimes they struggle to understand one another. People may find themselves facing similar difficulties, but they have arrived at them from very different starting points in a much bigger story.
I wanted to explore those differences, but also the things that connect us.
So often, fear and a lack of cultural knowledge can sit between people like a locked gate. We make assumptions about one another before we have taken the time to understand where someone has come from, what they have carried with them, or the experiences that have shaped the way they see the world.
Through the characters in Pot’s House Party, I wanted to open that gate.
The story uses humour, imagination and familiar memories of the home to explore culture, migration, belonging and identity. It asks what might happen if, instead of allowing our differences to keep us apart, we became curious about them.
Because when people begin to understand each other's stories, they may discover that although their journeys started in different places, many of their struggles, hopes and desires are not so different after all.
And perhaps understanding is where learning to live, and work, together really begins.