Header overlay
My Name Is Why
  • ISBN: 9781786892362
  • Pages: 224
  • Publisher: Canongate
  • Binding: Paperback

My Name Is Why

Lemn Sissay
From£11.99

SF Subscriber Prices

UK & Ireland £11.99 *save £2.00
Overseas £13.99 *save £2.00

Non-Subscriber Prices

UK & Ireland £13.99
Overseas £15.99
  • Gift wrap available
  • Pre-order
  • All prices include P&P. Overseas rates & subscriber discounts will be applied once you have selected a shipping type for each item during the checkout process.
  • Special stock order
Non Slightly Foxed title: Minimum 5-10 day delivery time.
If you are a current subscriber to the quarterly your basket will update to show any discounts before the payment page during checkout ● If you want to subscribe now and buy books or goods at the member rate please add a subscription to your basket before adding other items

Shortlisted for the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize 2019

At the age of seventeen, after a childhood in a foster family followed by six years in care homes, Norman Greenwood was given his birth certificate. He learned that his real name was not Norman. It was Lemn Sissay. He was British and Ethiopian. And he learned that his mother had been pleading for his safe return to her since his birth.

This is Lemn’s story: a story of neglect and determination, misfortune and hope, cruelty and triumph.

Sissay reflects on his childhood, self-expression and Britishness, and in doing so explores the institutional care system, race, family and the meaning of home. Written with all the lyricism and power you would expect from one of the nation’s best-loved poets, this moving, frank and timely memoir is the result of a life spent asking questions, and a celebration of the redemptive power of creativity.

‘A lyrical, painful and yet hope-filled memoir . . . Shattering, light-searching’ Observer



Comments & Reviews

Leave your review

Similar Items

Sign up to our e-newsletter

Sign up for dispatches about new issues, books and podcast episodes, highlights from the archive, events, special offers and giveaways.