Childhood
Blackwell was born in Westminster, London. Blackwell's father, Joseph, who was Irish, was related to the founder of Crosse & Blackwell, purveyors of jarred foods and relishes, and had some residual wealth. He became a Major in the Jamaican Regiment.
Blackwell's mother, the former Blanche Lindo, was born in Costa Rica, and was a Sephardic Jew from a Jamaican family. She belonged to a powerful family who made their fortune in sugar and Appleton rum toward the end of slavery. They are named as one of the 21 families who controlled Jamaica in the 20th century. Blackwell's parents divorced when he was twelve. Blanche was considered the love of Ian Fleming's later life, becoming the James Bond author's muse and the inspiration for the character Pussy Galore in Goldfinger. She owned several thousand acres of land near Oracabessa, Jamaica, and sold properties to both Fleming and Noël Coward. Due to her heritage, Blanche was viewed as a white Jamaican.
Blackwell spent his childhood in Jamaica, and was sent to Britain to continue his education at Harrow. Deciding not to attend university, he returned to Jamaica to become ADC to the Governor of Jamaica Sir Hugh Foot. After Foot was transferred to Cyprus, Blackwell left King's House to pursue a career in real estate and other businesses, including managing jukeboxes up and down the country, which brought him into contact with the Jamaican music community.
In 1958, Blackwell was sailing off Helshire Beach when his boat ran aground on a coral reef. The twenty one-year-old swam to the coast and attempted to find help along the shore in searing temperatures. Collapsing on the beach, Blackwell was rescued by Rasta fishermen who tended his wounds and restored him back to health with traditional Ital food. The experience gave Blackwell a spiritual introduction to Rastafarianism, and was a key to his connection to the culture and its music.
Read more about this topic: Chris Blackwell
Famous quotes containing the word childhood:
“Indeed, my mother’s beautiful face still shone with youthfulness that night when she so softly held my hands and sought to stop my tears; but, precisely, it seemed to me that this should not have happened, her anger would have saddened me less than this new sweetness that my childhood had never known; it seemed to me that, with a hidden and impious hand, I had just traced the first wrinkle and made appear the first grey hair in her soul.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“Women’s childhood relationships with their fathers are important to them all their lives. Regardless of age or status, women who seem clearest about their goals and most satisfied with their lives and personal and family relationships usually remember that their fathers enjoyed them and were actively interested in their development.”
—Stella Chess (20th century)
““Come; see the oxen kneel,
“In the lonely barton by yonder coomb
Our childhood used to know,”
I should go with him in the gloom,
Hoping it might be so.”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)