Mixed Blessings from a Cambridge UnionPosted in Autobiography, Books, Media Archive, Monographs, United Kingdom on 2016-10-31 15:05Z by Steven |
Mixed Blessings from a Cambridge Union
ELIZAN Publishing
September 2016
300 pages
Paperback ISBN: 9780995526808
Elizabeth N. Anionwu, CBE, Emeritus Professor of Nursing
University of West London
Memoirs of Professor Elizabeth N Anionwu CBE FRCN
Foreword by Malorie Blackman OBE, Writer & former Children’s Laureate
It’s 1947 and a clever, sheltered Catholic girl of Liverpool Irish working class heritage is studying Classics at Newnham College, Cambridge. She is the first one in her family to go to university – and then she discovers that she’s pregnant. The father is also a student at Cambridge, studying law. And he is black.
The fallout from their affair is dramatic, but despite pressure to give up her baby for adoption, the young woman has other ideas. Their daughter Elizabeth grows up to be a Professor of Nursing at the University of West London – but there are many twists and turns along the way. What does it mean to be mixed race in Britain? Who are you when told that your origins are ‘half Nigerian, half Irish’? Who are you, growing up as a child in care for nine years and without knowing your father?
This incredible story charts a roller coaster journey from the English Midlands to Nigeria, and from suburban health visiting to political activism and radical nursing. At the same time it brings social history to life – think ‘Philomena meets Barack Obama’s Dreams From My Father’! This is a heart-warming and inspiring book about childhood, searching for identity, family, friendship, hope and what makes us who we are.