Second paragraph of third chapter:

I didn't know how to speak in these tutorials where students talked about Evelyn Waugh and travelling abroad to places that I had never been. I tried to flatten the Welsh accent that would keep singing into my mouth, ringing oddly in the room when I tried to say something. My voice became a tight croak in my throat and I put it all into writing. When I wrote, I could sing as much as I wanted. One student who was studying a different subject tried to stretch out a hand of friendship to me over the perceived racial divide. He told me, with great politeness, that it was okay because when you shaved a monkey it was white underneath, so I was probably no closer to an ape them he was. Why he thought it necessary to tell me this was a mystery.

I confess that I am far enough cut off from the UK's media culture that I was completely unaware of the Kanneh-Mason family. All seven kids are very musically gifted, and one of the boys won the BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2016 and was then asked to play at the wedding of Prince Harry and Megan Markle. Their father and mother have clearly had an intense experience of parenthood. Kadiatu, father from Sierra Leone, mother from Wales, husband from Antigua, tells the story of their lives with warmth and humour, with also enough distance to feel that this is a fair portrait (though of course who knows, really). My own experience of parenthood has been rather different. You can get it here.