MY NAME IS WHY: LEMN SISSAY

Lemn Sissay is the light and victory at the end of a corrosive and empty care system. Alone, in the purest sense of loneliness, ripened for failure by the Wigan Authorities and his destiny paved for criminality or premature death. Lemn Sissay as an entire concept is a miracle- put into care almost from birth and cruelly discarded by the people he learnt to call family, at the age of 12. I can't ever imagine feeling so placeless and so othered in 1960's Britain. 

The book weaves in reports written by social workers, teachers, foster parents and psychologists throughout his time in care and is coloured by Lemn's own personal reflections. This duality of perception changes the narrative and what we see is a muddied, broken system that squeezes the hope out of children, who had no hand in their circumstances. 

Lemn's teacher (Mr Honeybone) once remarked "considering Sissay's age it is unlikely that education will play any further part in his future". Well, Mr Honeybone- you couldn't be further from the truth. Lemn Sissay: Broadcaster, Author, Chancellor of the University of Manchester, is a public middle finger to the system. He rose, he found hope and he made something of himself when the world said no.  

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