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Devon is the soul of non-commitment. He flits between the life of the shebeens and the newly established Pentecostal churches; he is married but a bachelor at heart, well informed but avoids confrontation. Sociable and innocuous, Devon has managed to secure and hold down a job at a Bristol engineering firm that operates a racial quota system. Devon is aware of the quota system, indeed, he is regularly deployed by his line manager and personal friend, Collin, to turn away black job seekers. Devon reasons that his employers have a valid point in trying to ensure that wages are not depreciated by cheap 'coloured' labour and preserving jobs for their sons and daughters - after all 'this a white man's country'. But Irene is aware of Devon's collusion in the quota and is disgusted with her husband. With his relationship becoming increasingly fractious, Devon begins to court white Bristol canteen girl Sheila Dawes. But when black Bristolians begin to organise against the colour bar, Devon is forced to confront his duplicity. His hopes of a romantic escape from his turmoil are dashed when he discovers Sheila is pregnant. In a fractured world Devon must choose a path and in the process begin to understand the inner demons that have shaped his life of compromise. Devon Country is set in 1963, the year of the Bristol Bus Boycott and the height of the American civil rights movement, and its subject matter resonates keenly with contemporary discussions of race and immigration.

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2008 (1 listings)