Keith Walker

Keith Walker spent his early years in Kingston, Jamaica, where life was tough in the hot and dusty ghettos of Trench Town. This is where his story begins. He later moved to the countryside parish of Portland where his love for the plentiful and delicious mango earned him the nickname, 'Mango Sergeant'.

In the mid-1960s, he said goodbye to the land of his birth to join his mother in England. It was the Swinging Sixties – a time of love and ‘flower power’ – but life in London for a young Black man was cold, bleak and unfriendly, and presented a whole new set of challenges. Every day was a struggle in his new, adopted home, but Keith accepted his fate and decided to do the best he could through diligence and hard work.

Nearly fifty years on, and looking back on his life, there were times of great adventure and great danger; friendship and conflict; joy and sadness; and ultimate success. “For me,” he says, “success is being able to walk the streets, ride the buses or visit public places without the fear of being discriminated against because of the colour of my skin or the land of my birth.”

• 216 x 138 mm
• 280 pages
• Paperback