This is a really interesting memoir. I was semi-aware of Barbara Blake Hannah. She was famous in the UK some while before I was born. The editor's introduction really caught my attention because Evaristo presents Blake Hannah as "not like normal Black people" and suggests her story will be unrelatable to most Black (or in my case, mixed heritage) readers. What I think she meant is that Blake Hannah is unapologetic about the class she was born into and the London society she ended up in. Even while Blake Hannah flexes about the famous people and exclusive environment she accessed, she shows up how her class/social privileges did not protect her, earn her considerable wealth, or stop her from feeling oppressed by pressures to assimilate or "play white". Meanwhile, she tells us how she became aware of the codes and trades and costs to her sense of self, to her Jamaicanness, to her understanding of being Black, and loving her Blackness. We actually follow her find peace through her reconnection with her identity and by rejecting many of the majority white contexts she lived in in London. 

I personally found the repetitions of information or introducing characters a bit annoying and think an editor could have helped with this. That said, I think it's fascinating reading, especially as someone who was raised close to one of the streets she lived in and has been nourished by one of the Black communities that was forming during her time in London. She narrates the audiobook which I'd definitely recommend. It's refreshing to hear/read her seemingly unfiltered voice, with fun anecdotes and problematic opinions. There's gossip and joy and play in among.