'In its exploration of geographical racial and cultural dislocation Sugar and Slate is in the
finest tradition of work to have emerged from the black diaspora in recent times' Gary Younge
Guardian A powerful radiant memoir from writer Charlotte Williams exploring the intertwined
history of Wales Africa and the Caribbean The daughter of a white Welsh-speaking mother and a
Black father from Guyana Charlotte Williams' childhood world was one of mixed messages
dominated by the feeling that 'somehow to be half Welsh and half Afro-Caribbean was always to
be half of something but never quite anything whole at all'. Sugar and Slate tells the
fascinating story of her journey of self-discovery toing and froing between the small north
Wales town where she grew up Africa and the Caribbean. Blending memoir with historical
research Sugar and Slate delves deep into Black Welsh history revealing the nation as home to
one of the first interracial marriages in Britain in 1768 and a site of Britain's first major
race riots in 1919. Powerful lyrical and intimate Williams' experience casts light on Wales
and Welshness illuminating what it is to be racially marginalized within a community which is
itself marginalized within Britain and offering a unique insight into the complex Black
history of Wales. A title in the Black Britain: Writing Back series - selected by Booker
Prize-winning author Bernardine Evaristo this series rediscovers and celebrates pioneering
books depicting black Britain that remap the nation.
