Dead Dad Book
The Dead Dad Book was a diary kept by Vicky Lindo and her family to record the journey they took to Ireland to visit their father’s grave and to find out what had happened to him in the years he’d been missing. The diary was used as a starting point to find out more about him and produce a body of work to tell his story.
‘In late 2018 I was thinking about my father Michael Anthony Lindo, reminded of him by the 70th anniversary of the journey from Jamaica to England of the troopship Empire Windrush, and all the awful news stories about the struggles people were still facing.
My dad died when I was 16 years old, not that I or my family knew anything about it. We had not heard from him in years; one day he had just disappeared and we never saw him again. Seven years after his death my eldest sister discovered where he had been. He died alone in a wood in Wexford, Ireland; his body lay undiscovered for two months. My father was an immigrant who came to England from Jamaica when he was 11 years old to join his mother who was already living and working in London. He spent his whole life battling alcohol addiction.
I had never considered making anything based on my dad or his heritage before – perhaps I hadn’t felt ready to tackle something as weighty or on that scale. But having decided to make a large body of work based on a single theme that would really challenge me, this was my opportunity to finally explore something that had always been with me.’
The ceramics collection Dead Dad Book was produced over the course of nine months for the British Ceramics Biennial (BCB) 2019. The UK’s premiere festival of ceramics that takes place in Stoke-on-Trent, the BCB presents artworks from the UK’s leading ceramicists alongside international artists, in exhibitions and special events held across the city. Dead Dad Book was selected as the 2019 prize winner for the headline exhibition, AWARD.
In 2020, the Victoria & Albert Museum acquired the 12 pots from the Dead Dad Book series for their permanent collection.
In 2025, they commissioned a film to capture Vicky and Bill as they make a copy of Wexford People, which features on the V&A YouTube Channel: Twisting Tradition: Medieval Cats, Dead Dad Pots and the Ceramics of Vicky Lindo & Bill Brookes
© All the photographs of the Dead Dad Book series of ceramics are the copyright of Victoria & Albert Museum
Exhibition
The Dead Dad Book in 2019 when originally exhibited at the China Hall in the former Spode factory in Stoke-on-Trent.
Jug of the World
Based on traditional North Devon harvest jug forms and decoration, it reflects the journeys that inspired pottery made in Bideford for centuries. It also represents the global scale of the migrations that led to my dad’s story. He had Chinese and West African Heritage. In 1961, aged 11, he travelled from Jamaica to London to join his mother who was already living and working there.
My English Heart
These pots are based on research into my British, Chinese and West African heritage. For this project I took a DNA test to find out more about my heritage. My DNA results came back as 56% English and North-western European, 24% Chinese, 12% Nigerian, 5% Malian, 2% Scottish/Irish and 1% Benin and Togo. These results have enabled me to trace some of my father’s family that we – and he – did not know about.
Chinoiserie Dragons
My DNA
Birth, Marriage and Death
In 2004 my eldest sister Khali was working in London. She drove past Somerset House and the idea of finding my dad came to her. Births, Marriages and Deaths: someone must know where he is. The last time we had heard from him he was living in Ireland. She contacted the General Register Office in Dublin and was told that he had died in 1997 in Wexford Town from cardiac arrhythmia. The idea of Birth, Marriage and Death has preoccupied me while thinking about my dad. I see his life in these three stages. We only knew him for the middle of his life, but have found out a lot after his death from the people that knew him in Ireland. The beginning of his life still remains a mystery and I will continue to try and uncover his story.
Mother and Father (Love and Kaos)
I have been making cats continuously since I was a child. I use pairs of animals as forms to carry different ideas and patterns. These cats are tattooed with events from my parents’ lives.
Michael Anthony Lindo (Memory Pot)
My sisters and I all have some good memories of our dad and I wanted to collect them onto a pot. He had a lot of problems: I now realise it must have been very difficult for him, and leaving was his way of coping. When I think about him, I remember the good times we spent together. We were extremely lucky to have my mum holding it all together. I didn’t miss my father when he left – it is only now I regret not knowing him better.
My Dad
A poem that came to me in the middle of the night, I think I dreamt it. I woke up and typed it into my phone because I knew I would not remember it in the morning.
My dad is the only black man in the village.
My dad is a gardener for the rich people in the big house.
My dad is sharpening his tools and listening to radio 4 in the shed.
My dad is sleeping, I am watching him sleep.
My dad is a keen cricketer, best player on the village team, he was from the West Indies.
My dad keeps dropping his knife and fork.
My dad has adopted my big sister, he wants her to have his name.
My dad has helped a man who has fallen off his bike, he has his St. Johns ambulance card in his wallet.
My dad has cut his leg badly, there is blood everywhere.
My dad has caught pheasants and rabbits; they are hanging in the back shed.
My dad is good with his hands, when they aren’t shaking. He made me a kite from paper and canes.
My dad is kind to animals, Sophie dog follows him everywhere, always carrying a cricket ball for him, go home Sophie.
My dad has written off the car.
My dad is the life and soul of the party.
My dad is pissing in the washing machine.
My dad is being shouted at by my mum.
My dad has spent all the money.
My dad has moved out.
My dad wants to treat us, he has taken us all to the pub for a roast dinner.
My dad has burnt the caravan he is living in to the ground.
My dad has moved away.
My dad has gone.
Swimming in Coolree Reservoir (Platter)
This is based on the time that Dad had left us and not told us where he had gone. We found out all of this information after he had died. He was living a hermit’s life in the woods near Wexford Town. He had made a camp and swam regularly in Coolree Reservoir. I believe that despite having left us behind he was trying to live a ‘good’ life and control his drinking. I think he was happy there for the last few years of his life. A neighbour had offered him a room in their house, but after a few months he moved back to the camp on the mountain. He was happy there living a solitary life.
Yearning for some facts
This is one of the first pieces I made. I was getting frustrated with drawing continual blanks about my dad’s life. I find that my ideas slow down if I am not making, so I went back to what I knew about him, swimming in Coolree Reservoir.
The Green Man (Platter)
My dad’s body was discovered in Balladinas Barntown woods two months after he died. Next to his curled up body was a pair of boots and a carton of milk displaying a date from two months earlier. I think of him as a green man, going back to the earth. This wood is where he wanted to be and it seems fitting that this is where he lay down to die. His eye is open because I don’t want to think that this was the end of his life. He was 46 years old when he died.
Wexford People
Quotes taken from a newspaper article written about Dad after his body was discovered. There is also a quote from my sister Khali. Khali played a large part in this project: it wouldn’t have been possible if she had not decided to find out what had happened to our dad back in 2004. With the help of my mum, she documented it all in the Dead Dad Book. The Dead Dad Book was a diary about the journey my mum, sisters and I took to Ireland to visit our dad’s grave, and was the inspiration for this work.