Many had a productive ‘lockdown,’ but how many Kirtonians can say that they published three books in two languages and started a publishing house in their home office? “Well, technically, it’s two books,” the author and publisher observes, because she produced two editions of a similar collection of essays. Only one of those is in English, and it is now for sale at The Bookery in Crediton’s High Street.

It was in February 2020 that, while awaiting the birth of her second grandson, local resident Dr Sabrina Gledhill signed a contract in Brazil to publish a book in Portuguese based on her PhD thesis. That work, which Dr Gledhill is now translating and adapting for English-speaking readers, focusses on two Black leaders, Booker T. Washington in the US, and Manuel R. Querino in Brazil. The founder of what is now Tuskegee University, Washington is well known around the world, but he had been largely forgotten in Brazil. Querino, on the other hand, was famous in Brazil during his lifetime, but has only recently been re-evaluated and restored to his rightful place in the ranks of pioneering Brazilian anthropologists and art historians.

The book was launched in Salvador, Bahia, in September 2020. Despite travel restrictions and thanks to the wonders of the Internet, Dr Gledhill was able to promote the book from her library near Crediton, from where she took part in round-table discussions and gave interviews to Brazilian TV and radio hosts.

Asked when she would start publishing in English, which is, after all, her native tongue, Dr Gledhill then edited a collection of essays on Manuel Querino by E. Bradford Burns and Jeferson Bacelar (respectively her MA and PhD supervisors) and other authors, including her own work, which had been published in Brazilian peer-reviewed journals. The reasoning was that Querino’s activities were so varied that it takes a number of specialists to do them justice. Dr Gledhill translated most of the essays from Portuguese into English, but since she already had the originals in Portuguese ready for publication, she thought, why not publish a Brazilian edition as well?

The result was that, by the end of 2021, when travel restrictions eased and she was finally able to visit her Brazilian family again, two more books were released in Brazil and the UK. The publisher of the English edition is Editora Funmilayo Publications, based in Crediton. Manuel Querino (1851-1923): An Afro-Brazilian Pioneer in the Age of Scientific Racism is available as an e-book, and in paperback and hardback editions on Amazon, Alibris and, of course, at The Bookery.

Published in the Crediton Courier on 25 August 2022