I was born in New York and came to in Britain in 1959, a child of the ‘Windrush’ generation of Caribbean migrants. Most people of Caribbean descent who came to Britain in the 50s and early 60s were young adults, without children; after all they came to work planning, for the most part, not to make a permanent move but to return to the Caribbean. Since 1959, apart from 9 years in Dorset, my home has been in South London, and I love it.
I had the first of my three children when I was an undergraduate. After qualifying I taught English and Drama for ten years at an inner city school before moving to Dorset, it was there that I became involved in Development Education supporting community projects, working in schools and colleges as an adviser and trainer for a small charity called DEED.

Although I enjoyed teaching in schools (much of the time), I loved working with DEED; it was meaningful, varied and creative and brought me into contact with communities across the UK and overseas. It was a privilege, an education for me but unfortunately, when the funding ran out so did my job – I’m glad to hear that since I left, DEED’s work has attracted funding and it continues to do important work from its home base in Dorset.
           
In 1997 I left Dorset with my three children to start a PhD, financing my way through a variety of part-time teaching, training and advisory work until I finally ended up working at a Pupil Referral Unit (a secondary school for emotionally disturbed students). It was there I had the opportunity – thanks to a redundancy payment – to begin to write what became Pilgrim State.