The Life and Rhymes of Benjamin Zephaniah
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33. With writers and poets (clockwise from top left) Michael Rosen, Allan Ahlberg, Brian Patten and Roger McGough.
34. With author and broadcaster Lemn Sissay, who adapted my book Refugee Boy for the stage.
35. With my old friend and political mentor, Tony Benn, 2008.
36. With the brilliant Maya Angelou at the 2002 Hay Festival.
37. Sharing a smile with Sinéad O’Connor.
38. Nightclubbing with the wonderful Toni Morrison in Brazil, and chilling with Doreen Lawrence in Leicester.
39. Protecting animal and human rights.
40. Jeremiah Jesus and Tommy Shelby (aka me and Cillian Murphy) talking about our favourite bands on the set of Peaky Blinders.
41. Me and Jon Snow – two ‘no O B Es’ hiding from the press in Columbia.
42. Practising t’ai chi in the temple in Henan with Grand Master Chen Zhaosen.
43. The family (from left to right): me, Joyce, Mille, Mum, Velda, Paul, David, Mark, Trevor, Kern (low on the left) and Tippa (low on the right).
44. Locks fly at Oxford Brookes University, 2002.
45. Accepting my honorary doctorate from Exeter University, 2006.
46. My fans in the school in Chen Jia Gou, China. They like my poetry too.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Benjamin Zephaniah (that’s me) is most grateful to Nicola Crossley, Kerri Sharp, Iain MacGregor and the whole team at Simon & Schuster for their creativity and their passion. Robert Kirby, Aoife Rice, Jodie Hodges, Rosemary Scoular, Kate Davie and Rebecca Haigh at United Agents for representing me so well over the years. Andrew Richardson and Margaret Murray done good too, and although they haven’t worked on this book, I have to send some love out to Neil Astley for taking my poetry from the stage to the page, and to Emma Matthewson for being by my side for much of my creative journey.
Linton Kwesi Johnson told me not to take my life for granted, Roger McGough told me to stop beating myself up, and Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze told me that love is the answer. They all contributed to me.
Other books by Benjamin Zephaniah
POETRY
Pen Rhythm
The Dread Affair
City Psalms
Inna Liverpool
Propa Propaganda
Love Poems (ed.)
Too Black, Too Strong
NON-FICTION
Rasta Time in Palestine
Painted Love: The Literature of Interracial Love and Sex (ed. with David Dabydeen)
My Story
Kung Fu Trip
NOVELS
Face
Refugee Boy
Gangsta Rap
Teacher’s Dead
CHILDREN’S BOOKS
Talking Turkeys
Funky Chickens
School’s Out
Wicked World!
The Little Book of Vegan Poems
We Are Britain
Primary Rhyming Dictionary
J Is for Jamaica
When I Grow Up
First published in Great Britain by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, 2018
A CBS COMPANY
Copyright © Benjamin Zephaniah, 2018
The right of Benjamin Zephaniah to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
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Hardback ISBN: 978-1-4711-6892-5
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