My books and I arrived in London last week and I have been busily preparing for a relaunch on Saturday 7 February 2026 at The Onion Garden, a green community space in central London. Over the last four years, I have seen this space grow from a tiny business into an award-winning non-profit urban garden that brings community and nature together. A “welcoming space open to all for love, laughter and life” seemed just the place to relaunch my book across the ocean.
It has been a busy week that has included an interview with Letitia George on BBC’s Radio Leicester African Caribbean programme, an in-depth interview for an online platform in the USA, and a written piece on my memoir-writing process for an Irish website. I will share links to the latter when they are published. Here is the radio segment in the meantime.
With taking my book to an international audience, I realise anew the importance of being sensitive to how terminology related to race differs in other countries. The Note on Terminology in Off-Centre and Out of Focus reads as follows:
I believe that the concept of ‘colouredness’ is neither a biological nor an ethnic identity, but rather a result of apartheid social engineering. I reject this label and race as a concept, and consider myself a South African. The term ‘coloured’ refers to people of mixed descent, previously classified as such under the apartheid government. I am mindful that ‘coloured’ has different connotations in Britain and the United States of America, but my use of the word is specific to the South African context. Since it is impossible to move away from race markers in this discussion, I have chosen to write ‘coloured’, ‘black’ and ‘white’ with small letters and in single quotation marks. Under Steve Biko’s Black Consciousness movement, ‘black’ referred to all those oppressed under apartheid. I have used this term to refer to people of African descent and for all people not previously classified ‘white’ in South Africa.
Off-Centre and Out of Focus: Growing up ‘coloured’ in South Africa
ISBN 978-1-83584-114-3
Published in the UK by Rowanvale Books
Available via Amazon and to order in all good bookshops
