Esther O’Neale’s Purple Blues has been described as a ‘smorgasboard of treats’ where the reader can skip around at leisure, taking in its array of poems, letters and short-short stories. The book takes its title from a touching letter to the author’s estranged daughter, written in purple ink, her favourite colour. 
Although most of the writings are set in her native Grenada, they explore themes that are familiar to a Caribbean reading audience as well as audiences elsewhere. 

In her short stories, readers will recognize themes of sibling rivalry, childhood cunning, the adventures of free-faring youth and the antics of guests at a local wedding. There are also serious themes in stories, articles and poems about racism and discrimination, the terror and destructive force of a hurricane and the experience of events during Grenada’s political revolution.
Purple Blues is a book for the young and the young at heart. It is filled with wit, wisdom and political commentary delivered in an eminently readable style.