London 1936. Two sisters are ready to take the city and the world by storm. Bath 2012. Two
young Black men are figuring out who they are and who they want to become. Manny Powell is
forthright intellectual and determined to make her mark on the London literary scene. Her
younger sister Rita 'The Baby' just wants to dance. Chasing their dreams across smoky Soho
jazz clubs they soon find themselves part of the burgeoning Black ambition movement and must
learn how to navigate it as women. As tensions rise and fascism and war snap at their heels
Rita finds herself drawn to the mysterious mimic and trumpeter Ezekiel Brown from Jamaica
and the trio are faced with choices that will alter their lives forever. Itai has fled London
to his late father's flat in Bath. Listening to cassette tapes his father made he realises
there is a lot he doesn't know about the man's life - who is Rita? Why did his father record
her life story? And might she hold the answers to Itai's questions? Meanwhile his developing
friendship with Josh a young athlete who moonlights as a dealer to fund his training is on
unsteady ground. As the country prepares for the 2012 Olympics Josh is under increasing
pressure from his bosses to find out just what the hell Itai is really doing in their city.
Manny and the Baby is a character-driven debut novel full of heart about what it means to be
Black and British now and in the past.
