Eight Weeks

byBaroness Lola Young, Baroness Lola Young (Read by)

Looking Back, Moving Forwards, Defying the Odds

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Lola Young has been an actress, an academic, an activist and a crossbench peer. But from the age of eight weeks to eighteen years, she was moved between countless foster care placements and children's homes. It would take many decades before she was able to make sense of her childhood.

In her poignant and inspiring memoir, she pieces together her own remarkable life story, using fragments of memory, her care records, and her imagination where parts of her story are missing. As she revisits her childhood in north London, she also provides glimpses into her life as a peer, activist, and campaigner - and tells the story of her attempts to reconnect with her roots in later adulthood.


Baroness Young's story is a vital part of contemporary Black British history, but is also a moving account of being a child in care, a black child in a white family, and the sense of disconnection that comes from living between cultures.

Lola Young went into foster care at eight weeks old: few might have predicted she would go on to become one of the first Black women in the House of Lords. This memoir is the moving story of someone who is only now making sense of her childhood and journey that followed

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About Baroness Lola Young

Baroness Lola Young of Hornsey became one of the first Black Women members of the House of Lords in 2004. Raised in foster care in north London, she studied at the New College of Speech and Drama, then worked as an actress, before becoming Professor of Cultural Studies at Middlesex University. Later, she worked in arts administration before receiving an OBE in 2001 and becoming an independent crossbench member of the House of Lords. She is active in campaigns on modern slavery and ethical fashion. In 2017 she was on the Man Booker Prize judging panel, and she is also Chancellor of the University of Nottingham.
Details
  • Imprint: Fig Tree
  • ISBN: 9780241671740
  • Length: 504 minutes
  • Price: £14.00
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