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The Life and Times of a Very British Man

`Full of charm` GUARDIAN`An account of what being British means` i`Captures a country in transition … You can`t fail to be moved` THE TIMES`Brilliant` EVENING STANDARDKamal Ahmed`s childhood was very `British` in every way – except for the fact that he was brown. Half English, half Sudanese, he was raised in 1970s London at a time when being mixed-race meant being told to go home, even when you were born just down the road.The Life and Times of a Very British Man makes the case for a new conversation about race in Britain through personal stories, political analysis and passionate belief in the ultimate good of this country – white, black and brown. Kamal recounts the extraordinary circumstances that led to his father, a proud Sudanese scientist, marrying his mother, a grammar-school educated woman from Yorkshire – and the first white person he had ever met. It was a time when wearing a miniskirt was an act of social rebellion, when `niggers` and `coloureds` still formed part of the national lexicon and when Enoch Powell`s infamous `Rivers of Blood` speech cast a shadow over the childhood of a schoolboy in Ealing. Witty and humane, this is a modern state-of-the-nation from a man who adopted the name Neil growing up (it was better than `camel`) and went on to occupy one of the most elite positions in the British establishment. It is also a call to recognise that this very British mix is the foundation for Britain as we know it – from Linford Christie taking Olympic gold to the era-defining music of Soul II Soul – and a study of why, when we consider the often fractious debate about our identity, there are still great grounds for optimism.

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