Black Teacher
Product details
- ISBN 9780571366989
- Weight: 232g
- Dimensions: 128 x 197mm
- Publication Date: 04 Aug 2022
- Publisher: Faber & Faber
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
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The rediscovered classic: an unforgettable memoir by a trailblazing black woman in post-war London, introduced by Bernardine Evaristo ('I dare anyone to read it and not come away shocked, moved and entertained.')
Benjamin Zephaniah: 'A must-read. Her life makes you laugh. Her life makes you cry. Get to know her.'
Jacqueline Wilson: 'A superb but shocking memoir about a brilliant teacher, imaginative, resilient and inspiring.'
Steve McQueen: 'Gilroy blazed a path that empowered generations of Black British educators.'
Diana Evans: 'Important, enlightening and very entertaining, full of real-life drama ... Inspirational.'
David Lammy: 'This empowering tale of courage, resistance, and triumph is a breath of fresh air.'
Alex Wheatle: 'A pioneer in many fields and wonderful example for all of us ... Essential reading.'
Christie Watson: 'A beautiful memoir of one woman's strength and dignity against the odds.'
Being denied teaching jobs due to the colour bar. Working in an office amidst the East End's bombsites. Serving as a lady's maid to an Empire-loving aristocrat. Raising two children in suburbia. Becoming one of the first black headteachers in Britain.
In 1952, Beryl Gilroy moved from British Guiana to London. Her new life wasn't what she had expected - but her belief in the power of education resulted in a revolutionary career. Black Teacher, her memoir, is a rediscovered classic: not only a rare first-hand insight into the Windrush generation, but a testament to how one woman's dignity, ambition and spirit transcended her era.
Beryl Gilroy was born in 1924 in British Guiana. She trained as a teacher in Georgetown before starting university in London in the 1950s. For years she was denied teaching employment due to the colour bar and worked as a dishwasher, maid, and clerk before studying child development and a PHD in psychology. After finally entering the educational system, she rose to become the first Black female headteacher in Camden in 1968. She balanced teaching with raising a family - in one of the earliest interracial marriages in the UK - and wrote Nippers, a pioneering multicultural series for children in the 1970s, followed by adult fiction. Later, she held posts on the UK Race Relations Board, Institute of Education, and a psychotherapy practice. She was described after her death in 2001 as 'one of Britain's most significant post-war Caribbean migrants.
Bernardine Evaristo, MBE, is the award-winning author of eight books of fiction exploring aspects of the African diaspora. Her novel Girl, Woman, Other made her the first black woman to win the Booker Prize in 2019, as well as the Fiction Book of the Year Award, Author of the Year, and the Indie Book Award at the British Book Awards in 2020. She also became the first woman of colour and black British writer to reach No.1 in the UK paperback fiction chart. Her writing spans reviews, essays, drama and radio, and she has edited and guest-edited publications including The Sunday Time's Style magazine. Made an MBE in 2009. Bernardine is Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University, London, and Vice Chair of the Royal Society of Literature. She lives in London with her husband. www.bevaristo.com @BernardineEvari
