In Between
About The Book
What does it mean to grow up with an African mother and European father in racially segregated 1950s Rhodesia?
For Maud Blair it meant being sent, aged four, to a ‘Coloured’ boarding school run by Christian nuns. It meant being taught in English rather than her native language, which she was encouraged to forget. It meant only seeing her family for two weeks during the school’s Christmas holiday, where Maud longed for the sense of belonging she once had.
Labelled as neither African nor European, Maud tries to make sense of her mixed identity in the midst of political unrest and de facto apartheid, taking her to England via South Africa and back to post-independence Zimbabwe. The result is a strikingly original memoir that confronts privilege, prejudice and the place we call home.
'Important and powerful’ Natalie Evans, author of The Mixed-Race Experience
'An unremitting search for identity' Florence Olajide, author of Coconut
'Lucid, flowing and warm' Ibbo Mandaza, Director of the SAPES Trust
'Immensely enjoyable' Professor Iram Siraj, University of Oxford
In telling her story, so that her children and grandchildren might know, [Maud] unpeels the human cost of racism. I won’t be the only reader who marvels at the writer’s resilience and how she holds on to humanity in such a dehumanising society. Moreover, the history Maud Blair brings alive is significant in its detail.
A tour of Cambridge led by Maud, taking you around places that have been important in her life. Travel and accomodation...
A talk from Maud about black history at your school, college or workplace. Does not include Maud's travel and accomodat...
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