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Cyril Everard Palmer (1930 - )

Name: Cyril Everard Palmer
Born: October 15, 1930
Died: June 16, 2013
Industry: Author/Writer

Mr. Palmer was born in Kendal , Hanover in 1940 and was educated at Kendal Elementary School. He studied at Mico Teachers’ College in Kingston and later still at Lakeside University in Canada.  He worked as a journalist with the Gleaner Company before embarking on a career as an author.

He was a prolific author of children’s books set in the Jamaican countryside and has received high praise for the excellence of his craftsmanship and sympathetic humour.  Mr. Palmer has published The Cloud with the Silver Lining, Big Doc Bitterroot, The Sun Salutes You, The Hummingbird People, The Wooing of Beppo Tate, A Cow Called Boy, Babba and Mr. Big, My Father Sun Sun Johnson.  An adult book, A Broken Vessel was published in 1960 by the Jamaica Pioneer Press.

He authored more than 15 books for young readers, the last one being A Time To Say Goodbye published in 2006.

Everald Palmer has been recognized for his great work in Jamaican Literature.

Among his awards are:

  • Certificate of Merit by the Jamaican Reading Association for contribution to Jamaican Children Literature
  • 1977 Silver Musgrave Medal for Literature from the Institute of Jamaica
  • In 1999 he was honoured at a ceremony held in Hanover where a message from the Canadian High Commissioner John Robinson, read by Councillor at the Canadian High Commission Robert Richard, described Mr. Palmer as ‘the master of the rural Caribbean tale for any readership, adult or juvenile’.

Mr. Palmer moved to Canada in 1974 where he continued to teach and write. He died there on June 16, 2013.