This was a great audiobook listen, narrated by Hirsch herself, and helped set context for me around the Black British life experience, in comparison to the African American/Black American life experience.

Hirsch sets expectations early in the book. Her experience growing up in upper middle class Wimbledon area of London she contrasts with her friend’s who grew up in the poorer Tottenham, a Black-majority neighbourhood. Being almost the only Black girl at school, she spoke to longing for being surrounded by people who were like her, while her friend longed for many of the things he had access to because of her class. She acknowledges her POV cannot represent all Black British people, and through the rest of the book dissects how British culture has segregated people by race.

Hirsch is half African/half Jewish and all British. But she speaks to how long it’s taken her to feel that. Growing up, she felt she was missing connection to her African family roots, but realised not long after living in multiple parts of Africa how British she was.

There’s so much in this book that’s great. It’s one woman’s story, but through her arc, she gives data on race and class, history lessons in colonialism and examines the current British society. Through one book, I’ve come to admire Hirsch as a journalist and storyteller and I’ll be watching for more.

This week she was one of the first to speak out against a BBC ruling that her peer Naga Munchetty violated impartiality when she spoke about President Trump’s racist remarks. She spoke perfectly to how BBC were legitimising racist opinions. “It’s ludicrous to say it’s fine for a presenter to speak to express her own experience of racism, but she shouldn’t cast judgment on the person being racist.”