Just recently, a couple of things have got me
thinking about books by black writers – and how few of them I’ve read or even
know about. The first thing to get me
thinking was Norfolk’s Black History Month.
I was really chuffed to be invited to take part in an event about inspiring
books. But why me though? I’m
not black. Well that’s very true - but
here’s the thing: You don’t have to be
black to read a book by a black author. Books are for everyone. So I talked about one of my favourite teen
fiction writers, an American called Walter Dean Myers – I’ll say more about him
a little later on.
The second thing which got me thinking was something
one of my A Level students said to me just the other day. I’m teaching the The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
It contains some dodgy old language and attitudes. To help my students understand why, I gave
them a quick history lesson on America and slavery and the Civil War and the
racial segregation which followed. This
sparked quite a few discussions in my all-white Norfolk classroom. We got talking about the ‘n’ word and why I
don’t think a white person should EVER use it.
We got talking about Stephen Lawrence too. And then, at the end of my lesson, Sophie
said to me, ‘I want to read more books by black writers. But apart from Malorie Blackman, I can’t
think of any. Are there other black
writers?’
‘Of course there are,’ I said – in that overjoyed
way I get when anyone tells me they want to read more books. And I reeled a few names off. But then I stopped. And it suddenly dawned on me that – in the scheme of things –
there aren’t actually very many black writers at all.
Not that I know of anyway. So –
for Sophie – and anyone else who is interested, I’ve put together a MAGNIFICENT
SEVEN of my favourite books I’ve ever read by black writers. I apologise now – because they’re all massive
bestsellers – there aren’t any undiscovered gems here. Because I don’t know any. So please feel free to add to my list if you
want to by leaving a comment.
So here they are.
In no particular order.
Coming
to England
– Floella Benjamin
This is the autobiography of Trinidadian TV
presenter Floella Benjamin. The book
begins by beautiful, colourful descriptions of her life in Trinidad and then
moves on to the gloomier environment of London in the 1950s. When I was teaching in secondary schools, I
read this book with every Year 7 class I taught. They loved it. They were also appalled by the racism that
Floella and her family found themselves on the sharp end of. Really this book is written for kids but I
gave it to my mum who likes autobiographies and she liked it too. A good story is for everyone. Apart from Floella, my favourite person in the
book is Floella’s mum. Marmie. That’s an inspirational woman for you. Right there.
Refugee
Boy
– Benjamin Zephaniah
Benjamin Zephaniah is best known for his poetry but
he’s written hard-hitting teen novels too.
Alem is a teenage boy from Ethiopia who comes to London for a holiday
and then finds himself abandoned there.
What can I say? This book made me
cry.
Monster
– Walter Dean
Myers
I mentioned WDM earlier. He’s MASSIVE in the states but hardly anyone has
heard of him over here. His teen fiction
is mostly all set in Harlem, NYC. This
is interesting to me because I like travelling and learning about the world –
even if it’s from my armchair. Monster
is an ASTONISHING novel.
ASTONISHING. It’s about a teenage
boy called Steve who is being held in a New York detention centre. For murder.
Steve imagines his life as a film and writes his story in the form of a
film script. Walter Dean Myers is original,
talented and inventive and I love him.
26a
- Diane Evans
This is adult general fiction. It won the Orange prize for New Writers. I can see why. It’s beautifully written and very very
moving. It’s about twin girls who grow
up in Neasden, North London. A little part
of why I loved it so much was because I lived for a while in Willesden which
was just down the road – but mostly, I loved it because it’s beautifully
written. It’s also extremely sad. I cried at this one as well.
White
Teeth
– Zadie Smith
The world and his wife are always going on about Zadie Smith. But that’s because she’s young and clever and
writes like a total dream. (She’s also very beautiful and very cool – but that
shouldn’t matter.) Zadie Smith writes dialogue
brilliantly. When her characters speak,
it’s like you’re actually there, listening to them. She’s written a few novels now but my
favourite is her first, White Teeth. It’s set in Willesden Green, North
London. I lived there once. This is not the only reason I like this book
though. The other reason is that it’s
brilliant.
Noughts
and Crosses
– Malorie Blackman
Even though Malorie Blackman is the only black
writer that Sophie has ever heard of and even though everyone in the entire world has read
Noughts and Crosses, I can’t leave Malorie or this title off my list. Malorie Blackman was writing teen dystopian
fiction waaaaaayyyy before The Hunger
Games. And the Noughts and Crosses
series really is extraordinary. I was
lucky enough to meet Malorie this summer.
I told her I loved N & C and said, ‘It was the bit about the
plasters which really got me.’
And Malorie laughed and said, ‘Everyone says that.’
If you’re read the book, you’ll know what I’m
talking about. If you haven’t, you’re
lucky because you can go and do it now J
To Sir, With Love – ER Braithwaite
I love this book.
LOVE IT. It’s a novel based on the real experiences of Ricky Braithwaite, who came to London in the 1950s from British Guyana to
be a teacher in an East End School. It’s
simply and powerfully written and ER Braithwaite is a total hero. There’s also a wonderful old film which has handsome
Sidney Poitier as the young teacher who weathers loads of racist sh*t and STILL
has the generosity of spirit to turn around the lives of those East End
ragamuffins. Lulu is in the film
too. And she sings the soundtrack. It’s a brilliant soundtrack. It’s a brilliant film. It’s a brilliant book. Ricky, you were a brilliant teacher.
On that note, I’ll leave you with this:
