Though still best known for her 'Noughts and Crosses' series which started in 2000 and is considered a classic in children's literature, Malorie Blackman OBE has written more than 70 books for children and young adults. Her work has helped shape British culture and spark a conversation about race and identity.

In this memoir, she shares the struggles and obstacles she overcame in her own life in order, ultimately, to fulfil her ambition to write.

She was born in south London to parents who had moved to Britain from Barbados as part of the Windrush Generation. Her childhood was marred by the everyday racism and bigotry of the time while also experiencing the sudden departure of her father and the family becoming homeless. She studied hard but her dream of becoming a teacher after university was quashed by a career teacher who told her to train to be a secretary because there were no black teachers. 

It's truly shocking to read how people treated her, time and again, and how much resilience, determination and self-belief she needed to achieve her dream - 83 rejection letters before finding a publisher for her books. Even then, they wanted to change her central characters because 'black w