The author of My Name Is Leon reads her memoir of an unpredictable childhood in 1960s Birmingham.

Kit de Waal's childhood was dominated by weekly visits to the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses and her mother's commitment to its millenarian doctrine, along with her father's dreams of returning home to St Kitts. Kit and her resilient siblings found themselves caught between the three cultures of their Irish mother, their Caribbean father and 1960s Birmingham. An erratic and unpredictable home life was followed by a period of hard living and crisis before books found Kit out and gave her new direction.

Kit de Waal is the author of the acclaimed novel My Name Is Leon, which was adapted into a one-hour film for BBC 1 in 2022.

Photo credit: Sarah Lee

Abridged by Julian Wilkinson
Produced by Elizabeth Allard Show less