Michael Abbensetts, Guyanese-born British playwright, Died at 78

  Writer

Michael Abbensetts was born on June 8, 1938, in Georgetown, British Guiana (now Guyana) and died on November 24, 2016.

He was a Guyana-born British writer.

Abbensetts settled in England in the 1960s.

Michael Abbensetts had been described as “the best Black playwright to emerge from his generation, and as having given “Caribbeans a real voice in Britain”.

Michael Abbensetts was the first black British playwright commissioned to write a television drama series — Empire Road, which the BBC aired from 1978 to 1979.

He was the son of Neville John (a doctor) and Elaine Abbensetts, Michael Abbensetts attended Queen’s College from 1952 to 1956, then Stanstead College, Quebec, Canada, and Sir George Williams University, in Montreal (1960–61), before moving to England “around 1963”.

Abbensetts became a British citizen in 1974.

During his later years, his health declined as a result of Alzheimer’s disease.

Michael Abbensetts passed away at 78 years old.