In this breathtaking memoir, acclaimed writer Alex Wheatle shows how music became his salvation through a childhood marred by abuse and his imprisonment as a young man protesting against systemic racism and police brutality.

Alex Wheatle is an inspirer. He sheds light in dark places … He is a vital writer LEMN SISSAY

Abandoned as a baby to the British care system, Alex Wheatle grows up with no knowledge of his Jamaican parentage or family history. Later, he is inexorably drawn to reggae, his lifeline through disrupted teenage years and the challenges of living as a young Black man in 1980s Britain.

Alex Wheatle is the real deal; he writes with heart and authenticity, books that make you laugh and worry and cry and hold your breath KIT DE WAAL

Alex’s youth was portrayed in Oscar Award-winning director Steve McQueen’s Small Axe series (2020). In Sufferah, he tells his own story urgently, vividly and unsentimentally. His award-winning fiction - and this memoir - are a call to never give up hope. Sufferah reminds us that words can be our sustenance, and music our heartbeat.

Alex Wheatle writes from a place of honesty and passion STEVE McQUEEN, director of Small Axe