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Sufferah: Memoir of a Brixton Reggae Head
In this breathtaking memoir, acclaimed author Alex Wheatle details how reggae music became his salvation through a childhood marred by abuse, imprisonment, and police brutality "Alex Wheatle’s Sufferah is a moving account of one writer’s indomitable will to overcome the odds stacked against him. A tender, hilarious, and deeply felt memoir, the book places Wheatle’s experiences in foster care and incarceration within a larger context of racism in the UK and dovetails with his coming of age as a lover of reggae music. What a gift to witness Wheatle’s journey to find and forgive his birth family and to make a life and family of his own."
—Naomi Jackson, author of The Star Side of Bird Hill "Alex Wheatle writes from a place of honesty and passion, with the full knowledge and understanding that change can only happen through words and actions."
—Steve McQueen, Academy Award–winning film director Abandoned as a baby to the British foster care system, Alex Wheatle grew up without any knowledge of his Jamaican parentage or family history. Preoccupied with his own roots, Alex grew inexorably drawn to reggae music, which became his primary solace through years of physical and mental abuse in a children's home. Although riven by loneliness and depression, Alex found joy and empathy among his reggae heroes: Dennis Brown, Bob Marley, Marcia Griffiths, the Mighty Diamonds, Sister Nancy, Gregory Isaacs, Barrington Levy, King Yellowman, and so many others. These were friends and mentors who understood the enormous challenges facing a young Black man, gave purpose to despair, provided a sense of belonging when Alex had no one, and who educated him in ways no school ever could. From the abuse he suffered in foster care, to the challenges he faced on the streets of South London as a young man and his eventual imprisonment for participating in the legendary 1981 Brixton uprising against racial injustice, reggae music always provided a lifeline to Alex. Alex's life story was portrayed in Oscar Award–winning director Steve McQueen's 2020 Small Axe, and viewers will know that Alex is now one of the most lauded writers in Great Britain, deservedly honored with a Member of the British Empire (MBE) for services to literature. In Sufferah, he vividly tells his own story, putting the reader in his shoes through the many challenges of his younger years, answering the question: how on earth did he make it? Alex Wheatle's award-winning fiction—and this memoir—are a gift to us all, a call to never give up hope. His stories were inspired by a boy in the UK who knew nothing about himself but found a rich heritage, and through Sufferah we are reminded that words can be our sustenance, and music can be our heartbeat.
—Naomi Jackson, author of The Star Side of Bird Hill "Alex Wheatle writes from a place of honesty and passion, with the full knowledge and understanding that change can only happen through words and actions."
—Steve McQueen, Academy Award–winning film director Abandoned as a baby to the British foster care system, Alex Wheatle grew up without any knowledge of his Jamaican parentage or family history. Preoccupied with his own roots, Alex grew inexorably drawn to reggae music, which became his primary solace through years of physical and mental abuse in a children's home. Although riven by loneliness and depression, Alex found joy and empathy among his reggae heroes: Dennis Brown, Bob Marley, Marcia Griffiths, the Mighty Diamonds, Sister Nancy, Gregory Isaacs, Barrington Levy, King Yellowman, and so many others. These were friends and mentors who understood the enormous challenges facing a young Black man, gave purpose to despair, provided a sense of belonging when Alex had no one, and who educated him in ways no school ever could. From the abuse he suffered in foster care, to the challenges he faced on the streets of South London as a young man and his eventual imprisonment for participating in the legendary 1981 Brixton uprising against racial injustice, reggae music always provided a lifeline to Alex. Alex's life story was portrayed in Oscar Award–winning director Steve McQueen's 2020 Small Axe, and viewers will know that Alex is now one of the most lauded writers in Great Britain, deservedly honored with a Member of the British Empire (MBE) for services to literature. In Sufferah, he vividly tells his own story, putting the reader in his shoes through the many challenges of his younger years, answering the question: how on earth did he make it? Alex Wheatle's award-winning fiction—and this memoir—are a gift to us all, a call to never give up hope. His stories were inspired by a boy in the UK who knew nothing about himself but found a rich heritage, and through Sufferah we are reminded that words can be our sustenance, and music can be our heartbeat.
272 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 2023
About the author
Alex Wheatle
42 books198 followersAlex Alphonso Wheatle was a British novelist, who was sentenced to a term of imprisonment after the 1981 Brixton riot in London.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 12, 2023
-ARC provided by Akashic Books and LibraryThing.-
Wheatle's voice in Sufferah is conversational, even friendly, and utterly candid. Reading this is very much like hearing a charming new acquaintance tell stories over a pint, bouncing from personal anecdote to historical account to musical fan-boy chatter; if it seems too quick to dive deeply into motivations or setting, Wheatle's delivery is eminently clear and accessible. The brusque telling, however, leaves me wanting to know more about him: what he did other than get hurt and dig reggae as a youth, what else influenced him, how he navigated the UK cultural landscape of his early years. And as the book goes on, I really am left unclear on what steps he took to become the writer he is and what he did while he worked under the stage name 'Brixtonbard.'
There is a major roadblock in this book for me, as a reader, and it has to do with my ignorance of a thing and his implicit assumption that any reader can follow along with him. Surprisingly, this block has nothing to do with my being white; it's that I have never lived in London. Throughout, Wheatle drops street names, district names, town names, and landmarks as if they're givens; I have no idea where these are, how far apart, how oriented, or why they are significant. Brixton is well enough known as an Afro-Caribbean enclave of South London, but my inner map ends there, so I'm lost throughout. Pity. I can look up the occasional Jamaican food item, slang term (the title itself, for instance, sent me to Google right off), but there really is no solid sense of setting, location, or context for me, an American.
It helped that I know much more reggae than most Americans, so I get the grooves Wheatle references, but one could wish this book came with a soundtrack: not only would that be wicked, but it would be a primer to readers otherwise fresh to the genre.
I guess my point is that Wheatle has, knowingly or not, very much addressed this memoir to a specific audience, one that knows his jargon, knows London, is deeply familiar with reggae, and one that can associate with his personal demons. On a deeper level, his growth has a universal, heroic arc to it that Joseph Campbell would see immediately, but there are many elements that aren't really given the descriptions warranted to speak to a wider audience. I may have rated this lower, but Wheatle has outgrown his darkness to a degree that his writing makes me hope to bump into him one day and chat him up and ask him directly the questions this memoir left me with.
Wheatle's voice in Sufferah is conversational, even friendly, and utterly candid. Reading this is very much like hearing a charming new acquaintance tell stories over a pint, bouncing from personal anecdote to historical account to musical fan-boy chatter; if it seems too quick to dive deeply into motivations or setting, Wheatle's delivery is eminently clear and accessible. The brusque telling, however, leaves me wanting to know more about him: what he did other than get hurt and dig reggae as a youth, what else influenced him, how he navigated the UK cultural landscape of his early years. And as the book goes on, I really am left unclear on what steps he took to become the writer he is and what he did while he worked under the stage name 'Brixtonbard.'
There is a major roadblock in this book for me, as a reader, and it has to do with my ignorance of a thing and his implicit assumption that any reader can follow along with him. Surprisingly, this block has nothing to do with my being white; it's that I have never lived in London. Throughout, Wheatle drops street names, district names, town names, and landmarks as if they're givens; I have no idea where these are, how far apart, how oriented, or why they are significant. Brixton is well enough known as an Afro-Caribbean enclave of South London, but my inner map ends there, so I'm lost throughout. Pity. I can look up the occasional Jamaican food item, slang term (the title itself, for instance, sent me to Google right off), but there really is no solid sense of setting, location, or context for me, an American.
It helped that I know much more reggae than most Americans, so I get the grooves Wheatle references, but one could wish this book came with a soundtrack: not only would that be wicked, but it would be a primer to readers otherwise fresh to the genre.
I guess my point is that Wheatle has, knowingly or not, very much addressed this memoir to a specific audience, one that knows his jargon, knows London, is deeply familiar with reggae, and one that can associate with his personal demons. On a deeper level, his growth has a universal, heroic arc to it that Joseph Campbell would see immediately, but there are many elements that aren't really given the descriptions warranted to speak to a wider audience. I may have rated this lower, but Wheatle has outgrown his darkness to a degree that his writing makes me hope to bump into him one day and chat him up and ask him directly the questions this memoir left me with.
June 24, 2023
A captivating look at the troubled and gut-wrenching early life of Alex Wheatle. With an unfiltered honesty, he tells us about his brutal childhood: abandoned as a baby, suffering mental, emotional, and sexual abuse as a child, and the desperation of loneliness and longing for family. Reggae helped him through it all.
I will admit I had not heard of this author before, but I will without a doubt check out his other works. He has placed himself as an award winning author and storyteller. His writing is filled with emotion and his words have a connection to the overall story which will certainly resonate with those that need uplifting.
As a successful, published author with a loving wife and kids, he has come through a dark tunnel to shine in the light where most of would have easily succumbed to the depths of despair. Sufferah: The Memoir of a Brixton Reggae-Head certainly opened my eyes. I just want to give him a hug.
Thank you to LibraryThing Early Reviewers, Akashic Books, and Alex Wheatle for this Arc.
I will admit I had not heard of this author before, but I will without a doubt check out his other works. He has placed himself as an award winning author and storyteller. His writing is filled with emotion and his words have a connection to the overall story which will certainly resonate with those that need uplifting.
As a successful, published author with a loving wife and kids, he has come through a dark tunnel to shine in the light where most of would have easily succumbed to the depths of despair. Sufferah: The Memoir of a Brixton Reggae-Head certainly opened my eyes. I just want to give him a hug.
Thank you to LibraryThing Early Reviewers, Akashic Books, and Alex Wheatle for this Arc.
July 17, 2023
Alex Wheatle's memoir is sensitively written about his difficult childhood in care - and how he turned it round to become an award winning author. The descriptions he gives of a first hand account of the Brixton riots of 1981 are very powerful. I am currently recommending this book to several troubled teenagers. Thank you Alex Wheatle.
October 21, 2023
Sufferah: The Memoir of a Brixton Reggae-Head by Alex Wheatle is a great read.
Wheatle shared how his traumatic childhood followed him into adulthood and courageously bared great emotional anguish. He effectively expressed his love for reggae and how it was his unwavering companion. Along with weed.
Throughout the book, Wheatle mentioned specific moments that were inspiration for events or characters in his other novels. At first, I was annoyed with it, feeling like they were shameless plugs. But, once I got out of my own head, I realized how smart it was. Not only did it introduce me to more of his writing, but I would have felt deceived if when reading one of those novels I thought “wait. This all seems a little too familiar.”.
Wheatle had friends that cared deeply for him, and helped him recognize his skill with words. He is an impressive man and deserving of reverance. He has achieved great things on his own merit, without a support system to speak of.
My appreciation to Alex Wheatle and Akashic Books for the LibraryThing Giveaways printed copy.
Wheatle shared how his traumatic childhood followed him into adulthood and courageously bared great emotional anguish. He effectively expressed his love for reggae and how it was his unwavering companion. Along with weed.
Throughout the book, Wheatle mentioned specific moments that were inspiration for events or characters in his other novels. At first, I was annoyed with it, feeling like they were shameless plugs. But, once I got out of my own head, I realized how smart it was. Not only did it introduce me to more of his writing, but I would have felt deceived if when reading one of those novels I thought “wait. This all seems a little too familiar.”.
Wheatle had friends that cared deeply for him, and helped him recognize his skill with words. He is an impressive man and deserving of reverance. He has achieved great things on his own merit, without a support system to speak of.
My appreciation to Alex Wheatle and Akashic Books for the LibraryThing Giveaways printed copy.
June 21, 2023
If you are a Reggae fan, or interested in music history in general, you should add this book to your bookshelf. I prefer to learn about music history through personal accounts and liked reading about the author's life experiences in and around Reggae, and in turn getting a history of British Reggae DJs and their self-built sound systems. Learning about the history surrounding the music gave me deeper insight into the lyrics and social tone of Reggae music.
Also, this book shines a light on the horrible state of the British foster care system in the 1970s and '80s. I read E.R. Braithwaite's account of his time as a social worker for London's Department of Child Welfare in the 1950s, Paid Servant, and it seems very little progress was made in making the system more supportive, and it seems it became less safe for minority children in those years.
I was approved for a DRC, via Edelweiss, in return for an honest review.
I would also like to thank Akashic Books for sending a physical copy for me to donate to my neighborhood community center's library.
Also, this book shines a light on the horrible state of the British foster care system in the 1970s and '80s. I read E.R. Braithwaite's account of his time as a social worker for London's Department of Child Welfare in the 1950s, Paid Servant, and it seems very little progress was made in making the system more supportive, and it seems it became less safe for minority children in those years.
I was approved for a DRC, via Edelweiss, in return for an honest review.
I would also like to thank Akashic Books for sending a physical copy for me to donate to my neighborhood community center's library.
June 23, 2023
'From Dickensian beginnings, Alex Wheatle has risen to be one of the most lauded writers in
Great Britain and beyond - deservedly honored with an MBE for services to literature in 2008. How on earth did he make it? ....The clue is in the lyrics of the tunes he offers us. (Taken from the introduction to Sufferah - written by me)
Sufferah was an unputdownable memoir set to music from an undefeated spirit. When Alex asked me to read it, I was worried that it might have been boring, but Alex is such a great storyteller, generally with a knack for speaking plainly and unpretentiously, keeping you reading.
This was equal parts heartbreaking, funny, uplifting, and infuriating. That all this could happen to a child seems so unfair. But Alex relates his childhood through a child's mind - it never feels too heavy.
I was honored to be asked to write the introduction to this, and I can't wait for the world to read it.
You don't have to be a reggae head to enjoy it - it's just a reminder that the art we create in all its forms can open a door for others to escape their prisons.
Great Britain and beyond - deservedly honored with an MBE for services to literature in 2008. How on earth did he make it? ....The clue is in the lyrics of the tunes he offers us. (Taken from the introduction to Sufferah - written by me)
Sufferah was an unputdownable memoir set to music from an undefeated spirit. When Alex asked me to read it, I was worried that it might have been boring, but Alex is such a great storyteller, generally with a knack for speaking plainly and unpretentiously, keeping you reading.
This was equal parts heartbreaking, funny, uplifting, and infuriating. That all this could happen to a child seems so unfair. But Alex relates his childhood through a child's mind - it never feels too heavy.
I was honored to be asked to write the introduction to this, and I can't wait for the world to read it.
You don't have to be a reggae head to enjoy it - it's just a reminder that the art we create in all its forms can open a door for others to escape their prisons.
September 27, 2023
If I did not have to work, do the parenting stuff….I would have read this book in a day.
This is the most touching book I have ever read. I have read books about someone’s account of a “bad” childhood however this one resonated on a deeper level. I understand the author because I too, am a Sufferah. We come from the same circles, same culture. Difference is I am a HipHop head and he’s a Reggae head. When he spoke about the isolation and loneliness that hit hard. Man, this book brought me to tears. So so very beautiful. Thank you
This is the most touching book I have ever read. I have read books about someone’s account of a “bad” childhood however this one resonated on a deeper level. I understand the author because I too, am a Sufferah. We come from the same circles, same culture. Difference is I am a HipHop head and he’s a Reggae head. When he spoke about the isolation and loneliness that hit hard. Man, this book brought me to tears. So so very beautiful. Thank you
June 29, 2023
The author Alex Wheatle tells the story of his tragic childhood. Sent into care he faced abuse, than the bigotry. The one thing that gave him meaning was reggae music. He uses reggae lyrics and slang.
February 12, 2024
Very good, short read but moves along so swiftly, too! Lots of action and reggae, doesn't have graphic depictions of unpleasantness but there is still a TW for this book re: abuse, suicide, racism.
More like a movie than a book, would make an excellent graphic novel. Very cinematic.
More like a movie than a book, would make an excellent graphic novel. Very cinematic.
August 6, 2023
A heart-felt account of one man's childhood in the UK's awful care system and how he managed to turn it round and use his experiences to write novels. Wonderful Love this writer / man.
September 10, 2024
4.5 - 4.75 🌟
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews