The Complete Guide to Leave Taking

A family between two homes

What Leave Taking is about

Enid Matthews came to England from Jamaica as a young woman, hoping for a better life. Now she works two jobs in North London, bringing up two daughters alone: Del, the elder, angry and restless, and Viv, the younger, studious and bound for university. Enid tells them almost nothing about her past. When she is afraid, she takes them to Mai, an obeah woman, for a reading.

Over eight scenes and a few weeks the family comes apart. Enid slaps Del, and Del leaves. A phone call from Jamaica tells Enid that her mother has died. Viv loses faith in the education her mother has worked for. Brod, Enid's oldest friend, tells the truths she has kept hidden. And Del, who mocked Mai in the first scene, ends the play in Mai's place, reading her own mother's palm.

The play is about migration and belonging, about mothers and daughters, and about racism and the ways people survive it. It is also often very funny, which is part of how it makes its pain felt.

What just happened

• Enid, a Jamaican-born mother, raises Del and Viv alone in North London.
• Mai, the obeah woman, and Brod, a family friend, complete the cast of five.
• The family breaks apart and begins to come together over eight scenes.
• The play ends with Del reading Enid's palm.

Why it matters. Every essay on the play starts from the gap between Enid's generation and her daughters'.

What to remember

• Five characters, two generations, two rooms.
• Funny and painful at once.

Revising a play through its moments

How to prepare a closed-book modern text

Paper 2 Section A is closed book and has no extract. You need moments you can describe precisely: who is on stage, what they do, which scene it is, and what Pinnock achieves with it. Because the play is in copyright, this guide quotes none of it; precise description is what an examiner can credit.

Remember that it is a play. Many of its key moments are actions rather than speeches: a stolen charm, a slap, a woman sitting alone with a drink, a daughter holding her mother's hand. Describe them as stage moments and say what an audience sees.

A moment card

• What happens, in one exact sentence.
• Where it falls: the scene.
• One method: stage action, structure, setting, voice, offstage character.
• One idea it supports.

This guide keeps to events of the play that are firmly established. Where accounts of a detail differ, it is left out, and you should not lean on it either: a precise description of a well-known moment is worth more than a vivid one you are unsure of.

What just happened

• The exam gives no extract.
• Moments must be described precisely.
• Stage actions count as evidence.

Why it matters. Range across all eight scenes is what a no-extract question rewards.

What to remember

• Learn moments, not long speeches.
• Attach a dramatic method to each one.

The Windrush generation

Why Enid, Brod and Mai came

After the Second World War Britain was short of workers, and people from the Caribbean, who as citizens of British colonies had the right to live and work in Britain, came in large numbers. Many had been brought up to think of Britain as the mother country, and expected to be welcomed. They became known as the Windrush generation.

Many met racism instead: at work, in housing, on the streets and from the authorities. In the play, Enid is made to clean up after colleagues at a party, Brod is told he must sort out his nationality papers or be put out of the country, and Gullyman breaks down after racist abuse. Jamaica became independent from Britain in 1962.

Decades after the play was first performed, the Windrush scandal revealed that people of that generation, living in Britain legally, were being wrongly treated as illegal immigrants. Brod's letter reads very differently in that light.

Grade 9 insight. Use this context through a character. Brod's anger matters because he was raised to wave the flag for Britain; Enid's loyalty matters because the country she defends has made her clean up its mess.

What just happened

• Caribbean migrants came after the war to fill labour shortages.
• Many saw Britain as the mother country.
• They met racism, and later uncertainty about their right to stay.

Why it matters. Enid, Brod and Mai are all of this generation, and each responds to it differently.

What to remember

• Mother country, then hostility.
• Brod's letter and the later scandal.

Obeah

Mai's tradition

Obeah is a set of spiritual and healing practices from the Caribbean. An obeah woman or man gives advice and readings, including palm readings, and uses charms and remedies. People consult them in times of trouble.

In the play obeah is a living link to Jamaica. Enid, a churchgoer who prepares her flat for a pastor, still goes to Mai when she is frightened. Del calls it nonsense in Scene One and practises it by Scene Eight.

Pinnock does not ask the audience to believe in magic. Mai's power lies in her attention: she notices the stolen charm, gives sensible advice, and creates a space where people say what they feel. Her healing works through honesty and care.

What just happened

• Obeah is a Caribbean healing and advice tradition.
• Enid turns to it alongside her church.
• Del moves from scorn to practice.

Why it matters. Obeah connects the generations to Jamaica and gives the play its ending.

What to remember

• Healing through attention.
• A tradition passed on.

Second-generation London

Del and Viv's world

Del and Viv were born and raised in London. They speak like young Londoners, not like their mother, and they know little of the Jamaica she left. Yet they are not treated as fully British either.

Del describes the police vans and the way people at work speak to her as if she could not speak English. Viv, a successful pupil, studies books in which she never finds anyone like herself. The play shows a generation at home in London and still made to feel outsiders there.

Their responses differ. Del rebels openly; Viv works within the system until she cannot. Both, in their way, reject their mother's strategy of keeping quiet and fitting in.

What just happened

• Del and Viv are London-born.
• They face racism and exclusion all the same.
• Each reacts differently.

Why it matters. The generation gap in the play is also a gap between two experiences of Britain.

What to remember

• Second generation.
• Neither fully British nor fully Jamaican in others' eyes.

Scene One: the first reading

Mai's bedsit

Enid brings both daughters to Mai for a reading. She is worried that Del is pregnant, and she suspects that her sister Cynthia, in Jamaica, is inventing their mother's illness to get money from her. Mai advises her to send the money anyway.

Del is rude throughout, mocking obeah, Mai and her room, while Viv tries to keep the peace. As they leave, Mai offers to be someone Del can talk to, and Del turns her down. Then Mai holds out her hand, and Del has to give back the charm she has tried to steal.

Key moment. Del handing back the charm she tried to take (Scene One). The scene ends on a silent exchange that predicts the whole play. Del wants something from Mai that she cannot yet admit.

What just happened

• Enid fears Del is pregnant and distrusts her sister.
• Mai advises her to send the money.
• Del mocks obeah; Mai catches her stealing a charm.

Why it matters. The opening sets up every thread: Del and Mai, Enid and Jamaica, mother and daughter.

What to remember

• The charm.
• The advice about the money.

Scene Two: the pastor, Brod and the slap

Enid's flat

Enid is preparing the flat for a visit from the pastor, and Viv is studying. Del has been out all night. Brod arrives for the visit, teases Enid about her feet, and talks: about the letter telling him to get his nationality papers in order or be put out of the country, about keeping his Jamaican passport ready, about Gullyman, and about colonialism as the cause of Jamaica's poverty. He asks Viv what she knows of Nanny of the Maroons and tells Enid that at heart her daughters are Caribbean.

Enid answers that England has treated her well. Then Del comes home. In the argument that follows, Del accuses her mother of accepting humiliation, the hospital party where she was made to clean up vomit among them. Enid slaps her, and Del leaves.

Key moment. Enid striking Del, and Del walking out (Scene Two). The quarrel about how to live with racism becomes a break in the family. From here, Del is only seen at Mai's.

What just happened

• Brod's letter, his passport and Gullyman.
• Enid defends England; Brod defends the girls' Caribbean roots.
• Del's accusations; the slap; Del leaves.

Why it matters. This is the play's fullest picture of racism and of the generational conflict.

What to remember

• Brod as witness.
• The slap as low point.

Scene Three: the phone call

Enid's flat, after the pastor's visit

The pastor has been and gone. Enid worries about how her daughters' absence looked. She and Brod remember church services back home in Jamaica, which for Brod had a life the English version lacks.

Viv tells her mother that she wants to go to Jamaica rather than go straight to university. Enid will not hear of it and blames Brod for putting the idea in her head. Then the telephone rings. It is Cynthia: their mother, Mooma, has died. Enid will send money home.

Key moment. Enid taking the call that tells her of her mother's death (Scene Three). The calm after the visit is broken by news from the other home. Enid's doubts about her sister in Scene One now turn into guilt.

What just happened

• The pastor's visit is over.
• Viv wants Jamaica before university; Enid refuses.
• Cynthia phones: Mooma has died.

Why it matters. The death is the play's hinge, and it changes Enid.

What to remember

• Calm, then crisis.
• Guilt over the money.

Scene Four: Enid alone

Enid's flat

Viv finds her mother sitting alone, drinking. For the first time Enid talks openly about her past: the poverty of her childhood in Jamaica, the uncle who left for America and her own wish to follow him there, and her mother's coldness when she left for England.

Enid gives Viv the money she has saved for university. Viv speaks of her unhappiness with what she studies. The scene ends with Enid saying that she wants to go home.

Key moment. Enid giving Viv her savings, and saying at the end that she wants to go home (Scene Four). Her two hopes pull against each other: a future for her daughter in England, and a return for herself to Jamaica.

What just happened

• Enid drinks alone and tells Viv about her childhood.
• She gives Viv the university money.
• She says she wants to go home.

Why it matters. The strong mother of Scene Two is undone, and belonging is reversed.

What to remember

• The drink and the confession.
• The wish to go home.

Scene Five: sisters at Mai's

Mai's bedsit, weeks later

Weeks have passed. Del is pregnant, as Enid feared, and living with Mai. She is still sharp, but she is growing interested in Mai's practice.

Viv visits. She offers Del the money their mother gave her for university, and admits that she has skipped an English exam, because she cannot see herself in what she is made to study. Del is furious. She throws Viv out and insists that she sit the rest of her exams.

Key moment. Del pushing Viv out until she agrees to go back to her exams (Scene Five). The sisters swap roles: the rebel defends education and the scholar rejects it.

What just happened

• Del is pregnant and living with Mai.
• Viv offers her the money and admits skipping an exam.
• Del throws her out to finish her exams.

Why it matters. The scene shows both sisters' relationship to education.

What to remember

• Roles reversed.
• The money passed on.

Scene Six: Enid's grief

Mai's bedsit

Enid comes to Mai again. She has not seen Del for weeks and is afraid that she has failed as a mother. Mai suggests she see a doctor; Enid refuses, saying that no doctor could understand what a Black woman like her is suffering.

Mai talks about her own son, born in England, who never felt at home there and is estranged from her. Two mothers who have lost their children sit together.

Key moment. Enid bringing her grief to Mai rather than to a doctor (Scene Six). Enid's refusal shows where she believes she can be understood. Mai's room is the only place in England where her pain has a name.

What just happened

• Enid fears she has failed Del.
• She refuses a doctor.
• Mai speaks of her estranged son.

Why it matters. The scene joins Enid's grief for her mother to her grief for her daughter.

What to remember

• Two mothers.
• Mai's room as refuge.

Scene Seven: Brod's story

Mai's bedsit

Brod wakes in Mai's bedsit after a night of heavy drinking. Enid has thrown him out of the flat, and Viv too.

Brod tells Del about her father. Treated with contempt at work, day after day, he turned his anger on Enid and became violent, and Enid left him to protect her daughters. Del does not want to hear it; she has preferred to think of her mother as the hard one. Watching her, Mai recognises that Del has the gift for obeah.

Key moment. Brod telling Del why her mother left her father (Scene Seven). The secret at the centre of the family is finally spoken, by the friend rather than the mother.

What just happened

• Enid has thrown out Brod and Viv.
• Brod tells Del about her father's violence and why Enid left.
• Mai sees Del's gift.

Why it matters. The revelation makes the final reconciliation possible.

What to remember

• The truth from Brod.
• The gift recognised.

Scene Eight: the last reading

Mai's bedsit, weeks later

Del has cleaned the room and is using Mai's things to pray for money. Mai tests her, and Del senses that Mai's heart is failing and tells her to see a doctor; Mai avoids the subject. Mai gives Del her notebook of everything she knows and goes out, leaving Del to see the next client.

The client is Enid. She tells Del that Viv is going to university to study Black Studies. Del asks why her mother never loved her. Enid answers with her own story: her mother disliked her, a coldness tied to her dark skin; she knows how her daughters are treated in England; she is tired; her strictness was meant to prepare them. Del takes her mother's hand and begins to read her palm.

Key moment. Del smoothing her mother's palm as the play ends (Scene Eight). The play ends at the start of a reading, so understanding is beginning rather than complete.

What just happened

• Del passes Mai's test and receives the notebook.
• Enid comes for a reading and finds Del.
• Enid tells her story; Del reads her palm.

Why it matters. The ending answers the opening: Enid at Mai's again, with her daughter as reader.

What to remember

• The notebook.
• The palm.

Enid

Mother, migrant, heroine

Enid is the heroine of the play: a cleaner working two jobs, bringing up two daughters alone, proud, strict and silent about her past. Her loyalty to England is real but costly, and it collapses after her mother's death.

Her strictness and her silence come from the same fear: that her daughters will be treated as harshly as she has been. The play reveals this to the audience, through Brod and through her own late confession, before her daughters can see it.

Grade 9 upgrade. Instead of: Enid is a strict mother who does not get on with Del.

Write: Pinnock makes Enid's strictness a form of protection that her silence makes impossible to read, so the play's reconciliation depends on her finally telling her story.

What just happened

• Enid is strict, proud and silent.
• Her mother's death breaks her certainty.
• She tells her story in the last scene.

Why it matters. Enid is the centre of most questions on the play.

What to remember

• Protection behind strictness.
• Silence as the barrier.

Del and Viv

Two daughters, two rebellions

The sisters are set against each other from the first scene. Del is loud and defiant, Viv quiet and dutiful. Del mocks Mai; Viv is curious. Del has struggled at school; Viv excels.

As the play goes on they cross over. Viv rebels against her education, skipping an exam and offering her university money away; Del defends that education and finds her own learning with Mai. By the end Viv is going to study Black Studies and Del is reading palms.

Grade 9 insight. Writing about one sister is stronger if you use the other as a contrast. Pinnock pairs them so that each shows what the other lacks.

What just happened

• Del is the rebel; Viv the scholar.
• They swap roles in Scene Five.
• Each ends with a form of learning that includes her.

Why it matters. The sisters show two second-generation responses to Britain.

What to remember

• Contrast.
• Crossing over.

Mai

The obeah woman

Mai is the play's still centre. Five scenes take place in her bedsit; she sees through Del at once, advises Enid wisely, takes Del in, and listens to Enid's grief.

She has her own losses: a son born in England who never felt at home and is estranged from her, and a heart condition she will not face. Her final act is to pass her knowledge on to Del.

What just happened

• Mai is perceptive and practical.
• She has an estranged son and a failing heart.
• She makes Del her successor.

Why it matters. Mai is the bridge between the generations.

What to remember

• Healer and second mother.
• The notebook.

Brod

Witness and joker

Brod is the only man in the play and appears in three scenes. He is a joker and a drinker, but he carries the play's sharpest criticism of Britain and its colonial past.

His function is to reveal: Enid's childhood, Jamaica's history, and the truth about Del's father. Pinnock lets the audience learn the family's secrets through him.

What just happened

• Brod is funny and hurt.
• He criticises Britain and colonialism.
• He reveals what Enid hides.

Why it matters. A minor character with a major dramatic function.

What to remember

• The letter and Gullyman.
• The truth about Del's father.

Identity and belonging

England, Jamaica, or somewhere else

Every character is asking where they belong. The first generation trusted Britain and was let down; the second was born here and is still treated as outsiders.

Enid's journey is the clearest: from her insistence in Scene Two that England has treated her well to her wish, at the end of Scene Four, to go home. Brod's letter makes belonging a legal question. Mai's son shows that being born in England did not make him feel at home.

The play's answer is that belonging can be found in relationships and traditions: Del in obeah, Viv in Black Studies, Enid in her daughter's hands.

What just happened

• The first generation is let down.
• The second is still made to feel outsiders.
• Belonging is found in relationships and traditions.

Why it matters. Identity questions appear in every scene.

What to remember

• Enid's reversal.
• Brod's letter.

Mothers, daughters and generations

What is kept back and what is handed on

The play stages three generations of mothers and daughters: Mooma and Enid, offstage; Enid and her daughters; and, as a second mother, Mai with Del. In each, love is complicated by distance or silence.

Enid repeats some of her own mother's coldness without meaning to. The final scene breaks the pattern when she explains herself to Del, and Del responds with a tradition handed down by Mai.

What just happened

• Three mother-daughter bonds.
• Silence passes down the generations.
• The final reading breaks the pattern.

Why it matters. Family conflict drives the plot.

What to remember

• Mooma, Enid, Del.
• Mai as second mother.

Racism and the Windrush generation

Offstage cruelty, onstage damage

The play shows racism mostly through stories: the hospital party, the police vans, Del's treatment at work, Brod's letter, Gullyman's breakdown, Del's father's humiliation at work. The damage is visible on stage, in Brod's drinking, Enid's silence and the violence passed down to her.

It also shows colourism within the family: Enid's mother disliked her for the darkness of her skin. Racism is not only something the Matthews family meets in England.

Avoid. Never repeat the racist terms that characters report. Name them as racist and say what they do.

What just happened

• Racism is mainly reported, not shown.
• Its effects are seen in the characters.
• Colourism wounds Enid too.

Why it matters. Use precise examples, not general statements.

What to remember

• Hospital party, letter, Gullyman.
• Del's father.

Education

Who school is for

Enid's sacrifice is for her daughters' education. But Del was failed when she struggled with reading, and Viv cannot find herself in her books.

The play offers other kinds of learning: Brod's history lessons, Mai's notebook, and Viv's choice of Black Studies.

What just happened

• Education is Enid's hope.
• School failed Del and excludes Viv.
• Other kinds of learning matter.

Why it matters. A strong minor theme for Viv and Del questions.

What to remember

• Books without Viv.
• Black Studies.

Structure

Eight scenes, a hinge and a circle

The play moves from Mai's bedsit to Enid's flat and back, following Del. Its turning point is the phone call at the end of Scene Three. Its shape is circular: Enid consults Mai at the start and at the end, but the second time Del is the reader.

Time passes between scenes, sometimes weeks, so the audience meets the characters changed and has to work out what has happened.

What just happened

• Two settings follow Del's movement.
• The phone call is the hinge.
• The ending echoes the opening.

Why it matters. Structure is an easy way to show AO2 range.

What to remember

• Circular shape.
• Time gaps.

Stagecraft

Actions, objects and offstage people

Pinnock writes meaning into action: the charm, the slap, the drink alone, the cleaned room, the palm. These moments often say more than dialogue.

Offstage characters shape everything. Mooma's death, Cynthia's call, Gullyman's story, Mai's son and Del's father are brought in through speech, letters and the telephone, keeping the cast to five while widening the world.

What just happened

• Stage actions carry meaning.
• Offstage characters drive the plot.
• A cast of five holds a wide world.

Why it matters. Describe actions as an audience would see them.

What to remember

• Hands as a motif.
• The telephone call.

Voices and humour

Jamaican and London speech

The older characters speak in a Jamaican voice, the daughters in London speech. The difference is heard all through the play and makes the generation gap audible.

Humour is everywhere: Brod's teasing, Del's sarcasm, the comedy of the first visit to Mai. The laughter lets the play's pain land without becoming a lecture.

What just happened

• Two ways of speaking mark two generations.
• Humour is constant.
• It sharpens the pain.

Why it matters. A point about voice is a strong AO2 move.

What to remember

• Jamaican and London speech.
• Comedy and pain.

The title

Who takes leave, and of what

To take leave is to say goodbye. The play is full of farewells, and the title gathers them. Enid took leave of Jamaica and of a mother who would not part from her kindly. Del takes leave of her mother's home in Scene Two, and Viv is thrown out later. Mooma dies offstage, and Mai, with her failing heart, is preparing to take leave of her life and her work.

Each farewell raises the same question: what can be carried forward? Enid carries her silence; Brod carries his history and his passport; Mai hands on her notebook; Del inherits a tradition and learns her mother's story. An essay that starts from the title can link every character to the play's central concern with what one generation leaves the next.

Grade 9 insight. Using the title well is a quick way to show that you see the play as a whole, but it must lead into moments, not replace them.

What just happened

• To take leave is to say goodbye.
• Every main character takes leave of something.
• The play asks what can be carried forward.

Why it matters. The title is a ready-made thesis for belonging and generations questions.

What to remember

• Farewells to places, people and life.
• Inheritance.

The people we never see

Offstage characters

Five people are on stage, but the play is crowded with others. Mooma, Enid's mother, dies without appearing, and her dislike of Enid explains much of Enid's coldness. Cynthia, Enid's sister, is distrusted in Scene One and delivers the news in Scene Three. Gullyman, in Brod's story, is a warning about trying to become English. Mai's son, estranged and never at home in England, is the second generation gone wrong. Del's father, revealed in Scene Seven, shows racism turned into violence in a home.

Pinnock keeps them offstage so that the audience, like the characters, meets them only through what is said. Their absence is part of the point: migration has scattered families, and the people who matter most are often out of reach.

What just happened

• Mooma, Cynthia, Gullyman, Mai's son and Del's father are offstage.
• Each shapes what happens onstage.
• Their absence reflects a family scattered by migration.

Why it matters. Offstage characters give an easy route to AO2 and AO3 together.

What to remember

• Absence as meaning.
• Stories instead of scenes.

Comedy and pain

Why the play is funny

The first scene is a comedy of manners: a nervous mother, a mocking daughter, a peacemaking sister and an obeah woman who is not easily impressed. Brod's teasing of Enid in Scene Two is affectionate and very funny. Del's sarcasm keeps the darker scenes from becoming heavy.

Pinnock uses the laughter carefully. Brod's jokes lead straight into his letter and the story of Gullyman; the comic first visit to Mai ends with the quiet business of the charm. The audience relaxes and is then caught by something serious, so the play's criticism of racism lands without preaching.

Grade 9 upgrade. Instead of: The play has some funny moments to lighten the mood.

Write: Pinnock sets comedy directly beside pain, so that Brod's jokes become the doorway to his most damaging stories.

What just happened

• The play is often funny.
• The comedy leads into serious material.
• Laughter makes the criticism land.

Why it matters. A point about comedy shows awareness of the play in performance.

What to remember

• Brod's jokes and Gullyman.
• The comic first scene.

Readings to weigh

Arguments a top answer can test

Open questions

• Is Enid a victim of England, or a mother whose silence harms her daughters?
• Does the ending resolve the family's conflict, or only begin to?
• Is obeah a source of real healing in the play, or a metaphor for listening?
• Is Del's anger at her mother justified by what she knows, or undone by what she learns?
• Does the play blame Britain, or show its characters finding their own ways to belong?

A top answer takes one of these questions, chooses a side, and admits what the other side has. Pinnock rarely gives the audience a simple verdict.

What just happened

• The play supports more than one reading.
• Choose a line and test it.
• Admit the counter-evidence.

Why it matters. Interpretation is the heart of AO1.

What to remember

• Victim or silencer.
• Resolution or beginning.

Four questions, four plans

Planning practice without an extract

Plans to adapt

• Enid as a mother: the first reading; the slap; the drink alone; the grief at Mai's; the final reading.
• Belonging: Enid's pride; Brod's letter; Viv's wish for Jamaica; Mai's son; the ending.
• Del's development: the charm; the slap; Scene Five; Brod's revelation; the palm.
• Education: Nanny of the Maroons; Viv's books; the skipped exam; Del's reading difficulties; Black Studies.

Each plan moves from the start of the play to the end. That is the single most important thing about a no-extract plan.

What just happened

• Four plans cover the likely questions.
• Each moves across the whole play.
• Each ends with a judgement.

Why it matters. Five minutes of planning saves the essay.

What to remember

• Start to end.
• One argument.

Building a paragraph

From a moment to an argument

Start with a claim that answers the question. Describe one moment precisely. Name a method. Say what it does. Add context if it sharpens the point. Finish with a link back to your argument.

Use this in an essay. Pinnock makes Enid's loyalty to England look like hard labour. In Scene Two she defends the country to Brod while cleaning and cooking for the pastor's visit, so her words come out of the work. To a Windrush migrant raised to see Britain as the mother country, respectability is a kind of armour, and the audience sees how heavy it is.

What just happened

• Claim, moment, method, effect.
• Context as a clause.
• Link back.

Why it matters. This shape works for every paragraph.

What to remember

• One moment per step.
• Effect, not just technique.

Using context well

AO3 on a modern play

Context earns credit when it changes how a moment reads. Brod's letter is sharper once you know he was raised to see himself as British. Enid's strictness is clearer once you see a Black mother's fear for her daughters in 1980s London.

Avoid. A paragraph on Windrush history that never mentions the play. Weld each point to a scene.

What just happened

• Context explains a moment.
• One clause at a time.
• Never a history essay.

Why it matters. AO3 is credited on this question.

What to remember

• Brod's letter.
• Enid's fear.

Close study: Brod's stories

Scene Two in detail

Brod comes to help receive the pastor and stays to talk. In quick succession he teases Enid about the labour her feet remember, describes the letter telling him to get his nationality papers in order or be put out of the country, explains why he keeps his Jamaican passport ready, and tells the story of Gullyman.

Each story answers Enid's insistence that England has treated her well. Brod, raised to think himself a British subject, has been told he may not belong; Gullyman, who tried to sound English, was abused until his mind broke. Brod then turns to the girls, telling Enid that at heart they are Caribbean and asking Viv about Nanny of the Maroons.

What just happened

• Brod's teasing, his letter and his passport.
• The story of Gullyman.
• His challenge to Enid about the girls' roots.

Why it matters. This is the play's fullest statement about the Windrush generation's treatment.

What to remember

• Stories as argument.
• Brod against Enid.

Close study: the sisters at Mai's

Scene Five in detail

Weeks after leaving home, Del is pregnant and living with Mai. Viv visits and offers her the university money that Enid gave her. Then she admits that she has skipped an English exam, because what she studies has nothing in it of her.

Del's fury is the surprise of the scene. The sister who left school feeling a failure throws Viv out until she agrees to go back and sit the rest of her exams. Pinnock reverses the roles the audience has learned to expect, and shows that Del values what she was denied.

What just happened

• Viv offers Del the money.
• She admits skipping an English exam.
• Del throws her out to finish her exams.

Why it matters. Use it for education, the sisters, or Del's development.

What to remember

• Roles reversed.
• The money offered.

Close study: the slap

Scene Two in detail

The argument in Scene Two is about how to live with racism. Del accuses her mother of accepting it; Enid, who has endured it to give her daughters a future, cannot bear to hear her humiliations listed. The slap is her answer.

Pinnock gives the only blow on stage to the most controlled character, which shows how near the surface her shame is. Del's exit sends the play away from home for most of its remaining scenes.

What just happened

• Del lists Enid's humiliations.
• Enid slaps her.
• Del leaves.

Why it matters. The slap is the low point that the ending answers.

What to remember

• Shame as violence.
• The exit.

Close study: Enid alone

Scene Four in detail

After the phone call, Viv finds Enid sitting alone, drinking. The woman who scrubbed the flat for the pastor is now still, and the stage picture tells the audience how far she has fallen.

She speaks of her poverty in Jamaica, of the uncle who went to America, of her mother's coldness, and gives Viv her savings. Then she says she wants to go home. In one scene she both invests in her daughter's English future and abandons her own.

What just happened

• Enid drinks alone.
• She tells Viv her past.
• She wants to go home.

Why it matters. Use it for any essay on Enid or belonging.

What to remember

• A still stage picture.
• Two hopes at once.

Close study: the final reading

Scene Eight in detail

Del has passed Mai's test and been given the notebook. The first client is her mother. Enid explains herself at last: her own mother's dislike, her knowledge of how her daughters are treated, her exhaustion, her reasons.

The play does not end with an embrace or a speech but with Del taking her mother's hand to read it. The reading has only begun, so the ending offers a beginning of understanding rather than a neat resolution.

What just happened

• Del becomes the reader.
• Enid tells her story.
• The play ends at the start of a reading.

Why it matters. The ending answers the slap and the first reading.

What to remember

• Touch, not words.
• An open ending.

Pairing moments

Early and late moments that answer each other

Pairs to learn

• Del steals Mai's charm (Scene One) and reads Enid's palm (Scene Eight).
• Enid slaps Del (Scene Two) and gives Del her hand (Scene Eight).
• Enid defends England (Scene Two) and she wants to go home (Scene Four).
• Brod asks Viv about Nanny of the Maroons (Scene Two) and Viv chooses Black Studies (Scene Eight).
• Enid consults Mai about Del (Scene One) and consults Del in Mai's place (Scene Eight).

What just happened

• Pairs show change.
• Each pair spans the play.
• Use two in any essay.

Why it matters. Pairing moments is the quickest route to range.

What to remember

• Charm and palm.
• Slap and hand.

Twelve moments to know

A revision list for the whole play

The twelve

• The first reading and Enid's fears (Scene One).
• Del and the charm (Scene One).
• Brod's letter and Gullyman (Scene Two).
• The slap and Del's exit (Scene Two).
• Viv's wish to go to Jamaica (Scene Three).
• The phone call (Scene Three).
• Enid alone with a drink; the savings; going home (Scene Four).
• Viv's skipped exam and Del's fury (Scene Five).
• Enid's grief at Mai's; Mai's son (Scene Six).
• Brod's story of Del's father (Scene Seven).
• Mai's test and the notebook (Scene Eight).
• The final reading (Scene Eight).

What just happened

• Twelve moments cover the play.
• Each can serve several essays.
• Learn them as precise descriptions.

Why it matters. Range is the key to a no-extract question.

What to remember

• Beginning, middle and end.
• Every character covered.