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Sugar and Slate

Black Britain: Writing Back, Book 12

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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

A powerful, intimate memoir from writer and academic Charlotte Williams exploring the intertwined history of Wales, Africa and the Caribbean

As the daughter of a white Welsh-speaking mother and black father from Guyana, Charlotte Williams's childhood world was one of mixed messages dominated by the feeling that 'somehow to be half-Welsh and half Afro-Caribbean was to be half of something but never quite anything whole at all.'

Sugar and Slate tells the fascinating story of her journey of self-discovery, from the small north Wales town of her birth to Africa, the Caribbean and back to Wales. This is both a personal memoir and a story that speaks to the wider experience of mixed-race Britons. It is a story of Welshness and a story of Wales and above all a story for those of us who look over our shoulder across the sea to some other place.

A title in the Black Britain: Writing Back series - selected by Booker Prize-winning author Bernardine Evaristo, this series rediscovers and celebrates pioneering books depicting black Britain that remap the nation.

©2023 Charlotte Williams (P)2023 Penguin Audio Black Creators Colonialism & Post-Colonialism Cultural & Regional Europe Great Britain Politics & Government Racism & Discrimination Social Sciences Africa Colonial Period Caribbean

Critic reviews

'An engaging and perceptive voice describing an engrossing and particular personal story.' (Gary Younge)
All stars
Most relevant
Lovely story telling. Thought provoking as the parent of a mixed race child. As a welsh speaker tho, the poor pronunciation of the welsh words really grated.

Very enlightening on the topic of racial identity in Wales.

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This was a poetic tale of the author’s life as a mixed heritage woman with African, Caribbean and Welsh heritages. She shows great insight into her ‘self’ as she has developed over the years, delving into her heritages as she makes her way across the triangular route between Africa, Guyana and Wales. Acknowledging her different identities and how they constitute her personhood.
She tells recognisable tales “if you know, you know” about having Afro-textured hair and all the difficulties that incurs. She discusses Collective Memory. Using poetry and prose, she interweaves the historical into her present day, leaving us more knowledgeable about the 18th century stories of enslavement, practices in Wales, Black GI’s in Wales during WW2, without turning her book into a history lesson.

Fascinating autoethnography

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