MILLIE MURRAY - READERS' NOTES

Text taken from: Sorelle

Download the original text pdf file of Sorelle.

About the book

The novel focuses on the relationship between a black teenage girl, Sorrelle, and her Asian boyfriend, who have to contend with the tension between their two communities.

Sorrelle has always thought she would only date a black boy, but when her brother Trenton introduces her to Arun, the Asian boy every girl seems to fancy, she can’t help falling for him. Sorelle’s Asian friend, Priya, fancies Arun and tells her own mother about the relationship. The boy’s parents then learn about it through Priya’s father. They pay a threatening visit on Sorelle’s parents to make sure the couple never meet again. However, they keep meeting in secret, helped by Sorrelle’s brother’s girlfriend, Zara.

Millie Murray was born in 1958 to Jamaican parents. She has lived all her life in the east of London. Millie's dream was to be an actress. Yet, on leaving school at 16, she began to train as a nurse, and worked as a nurse for the next eleven years. In 1984, she began to live her dream by beginning a two year performing arts course at Barking College of Technology. Unfortunately, during a dance class she tore her Achilles tendon and her desire to be an actress took a blow - so Millie began to write. She is the author of numerous titles usually listed as teenage books or young adult fiction: A Girl’s Best Friend (1987), Watchers and Seekers (1987), Kiesha (1988), Lady A: A Teenage DJ (1989), All About Jas (1990), Ebony and the Mookatook Bush (1994); Cairo Hughes (1996), Sorrelle (1998), Jade (2000) and Lois (2003). She has also written two non-fiction books for adults, Addicted (1995, with Steve Derbyshire) and Tough Talk (2000) as well as comedy sketches for The Real McCoy (BBC 2) and The Airport, which was short listed for Best Comedy of the Year, (1995, BBC Radio 4).

Foot the bill: pay all the costs for something.

More’s the pity: unfortunately.

Private eyes: private detectives; people who can be employed as detectives to collect information.

Butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth: The expression refers to someone who is demure and proper, and therefore 'cold' enough to keep butter from melting, but it's used to imply that although the person appears gentle she has an insincere desire to please.

In the same league: having qualities or achievements similar to someone or something else.

Nineteen to the dozen: very quickly, in great haste.

Activities for readers

The extract is taken from chapter Chapter 9, p. 96 - p. 103 

• Activity 1
  Discuss: Find out about the origins of the population living in the UK today. How strong has immigration been in the last 60 years? Where do immigrants come from? Compare this to the place where you live. Is your community multicultural too?

• Activity 2
  Go over the extract quickly and make a list of the characters mentioned. Can you tell how they are related to the narrator, Sorrelle?

Name	Who is s/he?

• Activity 1
  Discuss: What’s Aunt Melda’s reaction to Sorrelle’s refusal to go to Florida on holiday with her? Do you agree with her point of view or do you sympathise with Sorrelle?

• Activity 2
  Pay attention to the lines of dialogue in which Aunt Melda speaks. Why is the spelling so unusual? And what about the grammar? What do you learn about Aunt Melda by the way she speaks?

• Activity 3
  What’s the "fiasco" mentioned on p. 98 which started a week before?

• Activity 1
  Discuss: How would you feel about keeping a relationship secret and feeling you're being watched by a private eye?

• Activity 2
  Discuss: Do you agree with Sorrelle’s Mum’s views on friendship on p. 99?

• Activity 3
  Discuss what Priya says about the mixing of colours on p. 100. Do people think this way in your community? Are views changing from one generation to another?

• Activity 4
  Have you ever felt overcome with anger? Did you manage to control it? How?
  Do you know of any situations in which people lost control and ended up harming themselves and/or others?
  What do you do to control your anger?
  Design a brochure to give people advice on anger management.

• Activity 5
  Discuss: Do you think Sorrelle is right in refusing to see Priya or answer her calls? What would you do in her situation?

• Activity 6
  What would you do if you were Priya? Would you try to apologise? Speak to Arun’s parents? Role-play the situation with other readers.

• Activity 1
  How do you think the story will go on? Will Sorrelle and Arun split up? Will their secret meetings be discovered? Will Sorrelle and Priya be friends again? Write a summary of your ideas.

• Activity 2
  Do you think multiracial couples can work? What pressures are they under in your community?