The Brown Brontë

Greetings, readers, on this lovely October day. As you may know, October is Black History Month. It’s been just over a year since my last Black History Month post and it feels like so much has changed in the world since then: the pandemic and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement have highlighted structural racism and inequalities that still affect black communities in Britain and the US today. As a result there are more open conversations being had about privilege and prejudice, and there are initiatives to decolonise education at all levels. Black representation in publishing is an area where a lot of work remains to be done, although it’s heartening to see that this is also changing for the better. And so, today I am rounding up some of the titles I have read in the last 12 months by black authors, as well as some I still want to read.  Let's start with what I read: Queenie, Candice Carty-Williams: I had heard a lot about this book so I was very interested to try it. The

On this day exactly one year ago, I launched this blog. I can't believe it has been a whole year already, and how far I've come since then. To mark this VERY special day, here are some things I've learned in my first year of blogging, and some goals I have for the next year. Although I feel like I still have so much to learn, I hope the insights I've gained so far will help or encourage some of you who may be starting out on your blogging journey. 6 Lessons I Learned: 1. People are interested in what I have to say! It took me the longest time to summon up the courage to put my writing out there; I thought nobody would be interested in my thoughts, or they would think that what I wrote was stupid, or not very interesting, or irrelevant. But the more I wrote and shared, the more I realised that this is not true, and I was just talking myself down. I didn't really believe it until I shared a translation I had been working on, and the comments I got were so positive -

How is it October already?! There's a chill in the air, the leaves are turning, and the kids have been back at school for a month, local lockdowns notwithstanding. It is actually great for them to be back in a learning environment with their teachers and friends, despite all the new restrictions. But the return to school has been amid some worrying news of political intervention in education, most notably the directives not to teach using materials from 'anti-capitalist groups'; being opposed to capitalism is now apparently classed as an 'extreme political view'. So it seemed like a good time to share this post I wrote - last year! I didn't share it then, for many reasons, but mainly because I was starting out on my blogging journey and was still riddled with self-doubt. I'm learning not to overthink things; I've realised that if I don't get over my fears and post, then often the moment passes -  and then I have to wait a whole year for things to bec