To be born into a black , relatively wealthy family in Chicago, in the late 1940s, was to be born into a world of contradictions. Margo Jefferson describes this world of 'privilege and plenty' as 'Negroland'.

But despite their comfortable home and private education she and her sister still had to navigate the rules that determined what made a black woman attractive. The shade of their skin, the texture of their hair, the shape of their noses.

In prose that is always intellectually incisive and often powerfully vulnerable Margo Jefferson reads from her own memoir.

Written and read by Margo Jefferson
Abridged and produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4. Show less