Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview
  • I'm Black So You Don't Have to Be

  • A Memoir in Eight Lives
  • By: Colin Grant
  • Narrated by: Colin Grant
  • Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (9 ratings)

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

I'm Black So You Don't Have to Be

By: Colin Grant
Narrated by: Colin Grant
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

'I'm black, so you don't have to be,' Colin Grant's uncle Castus used to tell him. For Colin, born in Britain to Jamaican parents, things were supposed to be different. If he worked hard and became a doctor, he was told, his race would become invisible; he would shake off the burden he believed his parents' generation had carried. The reality turned out to be very different.

This is a memoir told through a series of intimate intergenerational portraits. We meet Grant's mother Ethlyn, disappointed by working-class life in Luton, who dreams of returning to Jamaica; his father Bageye, a small-time criminal with a violent temper; his sister Selma, who refashioned herself as an African princess; his great uncle Percy, estranged from his family through his own pride.

Each character we meet is navigating their own path. Each life informs Grant's own shifting sense of his identity. Collectively these stories build into poignant and insightful testimony of black British experience. Written the intrigue, nuance, beauty and wit of short stories, and with the veracity and painful revelation of memoir, I'm Black, so You Don't Have to Be is a unforgettable exploration of family, identity, race and generational change.

©2022 Colin Grant (P)2022 Penguin Audio
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Everything Is Everything cover art
Without Warning and Only Sometimes cover art
Dispatches from the Diaspora cover art
Afropean cover art
Address Book cover art
The Go-Between cover art
Love in a Time of War cover art
Back to Black cover art
Furies cover art
Are We Home Yet? cover art
The Killings at Badger’s Drift cover art
African and Caribbean People in Britain cover art
It's a Continent cover art
Incomparable World cover art

Critic reviews

"Colin Grant writes about the characters in his family with the mischievous, dramatic flair of a natural storyteller. This is a compelling and charming read." (Bernardine Evaristo, Booker Prize-winning author of Girl, Woman, Other)

"Unflinching, honest and supremely intelligent, this wonderful collection of linked memoir essays cements Grant's reputation as a chronicler of the Black British experience... An artful exploration of others in order to illuminate the self. We are always in the hands of Grant's singular and deft voice, moving from the funny to the tragic in swift, confident strides." (Hannah Lowe, Costa prize-winning author of The Kids)

"A memoir told through [Grant's] interaction with his family and others, but presented in impeccable prose and woven together with all the tensions and humour of the best fiction. A hugely enjoyable read. Get it now. (Roger Robinson, T.S. Eliot prize-winning author of A Portable Paradise)

What listeners say about I'm Black So You Don't Have to Be

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    7
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    5
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    6
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Compelling

I’m so glad I listened to this book on Audible rather than simply buying the book. Colin’s reading gives real depth to these brilliant and compelling stories. I will be recommending this far and wide.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

heartbreaking

It makes me wonder if things will ever change. I can't imagine having to carry that burdon throughout my life

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Thought provoking!

Well read by the author! Made me think about life in Britain for the Windrush generation and their descendants! The treatment of Colin by the BBC - scandalous!!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!