Diane Abbott, the UK’s first Black female MP, has been a dedicated advocate for social justice and equality throughout her distinguished political career. In her memoir, A Woman Like Me, she shares an honest, powerful and inspiring reflection on her life, her groundbreaking path in Parliament, and the persistent challenges she’s faced as a Black woman in politics.
A powerful and moving memoir by the woman who made history as Britain’s first black female MP, telling the story of our nation through her eyes.
Diane will be in conversation with award-winning author, broadcaster and professor of sociology Gary Younge.
Diane Abbott was born in London in 1953, to parents who were part of the Windrush generation. She has been the Member of Parliament for Hackney and Stoke Newington for more than 35 years. The first Black woman elected to Parliament; she is also the longest-serving Black MP in the House of Commons. She is the founder of several initiatives, including London Schools and the Black Child and Black Women Mean Business. For 12 years, she appeared as a regular contributor on the BBC’s political digest show This Week. A Woman Like Me is her first book.
Gary Younge is an award-winning author, broadcaster and a professor of sociology at the University of Manchester in England.
He has written six books: Dispatches From the Diaspora, From Nelson Mandela to Black Lives Matter; Another Day in the Death of America, A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives; The Speech, The Story Behind Martin Luther King’s Dream; Who Are We?, And Should it Matter in the 21st century; Stranger in a Strange Land, Travels in the Disunited States and No Place Like Home, A Black Briton’s Journey Through the Deep South. He has also written for The New York Review of Books. Granta, GQ, The Financial Times and The New Statesman and made several radio and television documentaries on subjects ranging from gay marriage to Brexit.
A Woman Like Me is available in all good bookshops!