Cover Image: My Name Is Why

My Name Is Why

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Member Reviews

When I pick up a biography, it is rarely by someone I know of; I much prefer unravelling a complete stranger's journey, and discovering new lives to root for.

On this occasion, unfamiliar with Lemn Sissay's previous work, I was swayed into reading My Name is Why by that striking title, and my curiosity to read a story about the government being up to no good.

Turns out, it ended up being one of the most interesting biographies I read last year, and revealed a dark underbelly to social services that I never knew existed. My curiosity was piqued for sure, and I was gripped by the author's recollection of how he was taken unwillingly from his mother and left to suffer in foster care.

Commenting on the paperwork that was filed during his time in foster care, My Name is Why reads like a researcher or investigator analysing evidence. I can't imagine what he must have felt to have read about his life through other people's observations, like a rat in a research lab.  Especially knowing some of those observations weren't even true, and yet moved his life in unwanted directions at the time.

The author's pain in writing the book is so evident, and it isn't hard to understand where his anger and frustration stems from. Being let down by the people whose duty it is to protect you - it hurts as a reader to see how he was truly failed by the system. It was very thought-provoking, and has made me want to read more books about the foster system.

Since reading his book, I've moved back through Lemn Sissay's work, and explored his poetry and website. I found this post about the impending publication of this very book, and the heart-warming comments are so touching. I'm glad as an adult that the author has found a solid support network and has become successful despite the obstacles he faced.

A very sad and inspiring book, but one I think everyone should read.

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This book is a beautiful tragedy. I too learned things i did not know when I obtained my birth certificate and at a point where you are maturing and entering into afulthood it was really something that threw me for a loop. I love how his journey is so poetically explored in this memoir. I definitely feel this should be required reading in middle school/high school.

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Thank you NetGalley for my review copy of this book.

An important story has been told in this book and it is a story that breaks your heart and was completely avoidable. It gets you thinking about racism in this society in times past and into today. Lemn’s writing is light, at times humourous but with a depth of knowledge and wisdom only one who has been traumatised can write from. This book will stay with you long afterwards.

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"My Name is Why" is an interesting and unique memoir - Lemn was born in the UK to a single mother who had to flee the country to take care of her father. When she returned to find her baby, he was gone, taken by the government and they would not connect her to him.

Lemn shares his entire experience of living in foster care in the UK and how he struggled when he found out his truth all those years later.

I was fully captivated by the first half of this book then it lost some steam. It is a very important issue and Lemn has lived quite a life. I found the format involving his foster papers interesting as well since I've never seen that before.

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Heart wrenching, heartbreaking, a true tearjerker that at the same time evoked a feeling of injustice that should not exist.
Although it was a hard read, I loved that I had the opportunity to do so. We need more voices like Sissay.

Thank you Netgalley for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

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“Look what was sown by the stars At night across the fields I am not defined by scars But by the incredible ability to heal”
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Lemn was taken into “care” as a baby. Born to an Ethiopian mother who tried, on more than one occasion, to reclaim her baby, Lemn was fostered out to a family in Lancashire and became “Norman Greenwood” for the first twelve years of his life. Shockingly, at the age of 12, his foster parents return him to the care of the “Authority”


After thirty years of trying to get his state records, Lemn received “four thick folders of documents.” As the reader, we see Lemn’s journey in care through the use of his records in his memoir, interspersed with his memories, commentary, testimony and poetry


Care seems ta strange word to use of a system that contained rather than nurtured, suppressed rather than encouraged and disciplined rather than loved. Lemn writes, “How does a government steal a child and then imprison him? How does it keep it a secret? This story is how”


Lemn’s memoir is heavy with anger and loss, but is testament to the spirit of a boy who, despite losing everything, survived and became one of the UK’s best-loved poets. Huge thanks to CannonGate books and NetGalley for my copy

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I really congratulate Lemn for being so brave and sharing his story. This was a heartbreaking read that puts a spotlight on the horrendous treatment of children in social care facilities in the UK. I enjoyed the short chapters and I found the supporting images of the actual social care reports really unique. A wonderful eye opening memoir!

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My Name is Why is both beautiful and heartbreaking. I loved the contrast of the clinical reports and documents mixed with Lemn Sissay's deeply personal recollections of his youth. The short four line poems in the beginning of each chapter were utterly breathtaking! Sissay's precise words evoke palable emotions with both articulate and artistic flare. His observations and realisations of his past weaves in discussions racism and disfunction of both people and institutions in a very natural and accessible. Lemn Sissay's empathy and emotional intelligence leaves me in awe.

I highly recommend reading My Name is Why but I'd warn it is rather emotionally taxing. As someone with anxiety and depression it left me fatigued and in tears. So be prepared if you are fragile like me.
I look forward to reading more of Sissay's poetry in the future

I received an arc in exchange for an honest review from Netgalley

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My Name is Why presents a powerful look at the foster care system in the UK, and to go one step further, all of the child care systems world wide which are more intent with the care and feeding of the bureaucracy of the system rather than the children they are meant to care for.

It is no wonder that a majority of children coming up through these systems have little sense of self, self-worth, and little idea where they can fit in to the society and culture around them.

How we treat the weakest and most vulnerable among us speaks to both our personal and national/societal character. Shame on us!

My thanks to NetGalley and Canongate Books for allowing me to read an advance copy of this memoir which is scheduled to be published 1/26/2021. All opinions expressed here are my own.

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Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.
This is quite a powerful memoir. It's heartbreaking to read. The inclusion of the files from social services really show how dysfunctional the system is. And to learn of his childhood through those files and memories, without pictures and being let down by so many people including his foster parents, all while facing racism, is incredibly sad. Lemn is such a courageous man.

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A very beautifully written, but very heartbreaking read. Really shows how badly the government and authorities can fail people - and as Sissay’s book proves, especially children. Absolutely horrible. Truly outrageous.

Thank you to the author for sharing his story. Thank you to Canongate Books & NetGalley for the ebook in exchange for an honest opinion.

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I loved this book. It was heart wrenching and honest, charting the story of Lemn’s life from birth until he leaves care age 18. It left me with a lot of questions, all good, what happens next in his life? What about his birth mother? I just had to google h8m to find out. I thoroughly recommend this book. Thanks NetGalley!

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My Name Is Why is undoubtedly a phenomenal book. It is one that I chose to read slowly because I did not want it to end. Although the author, Lemn Sissay, was introduced to great pain, he showed great strength. Rejection, racism, and deep untruths was a constant in his childhood. However, his love endured despite the unrequited love met from others. Sissay reminds the reader of the unnerving reality many children in foster homes face, and the necessity for change in protocol, leadership, and care. This book is a must read. I hope My Life Is Why leaves readers inspired to undergo their own self-reflection of love, care, and understanding as well as, make positive changes within their communities.

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Interesting memoir about Lemn Sissay growing up. I found the original documents used fascinating! Thank you to @netgalley for the arc.

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Many readers will have heard of the poet Lemn Sissay and may have heard him perform. Few may have realised that he was “raised” through the “care system” and still carries huge scars from this life. But in the midst of his later years there he started to turn to poetry to ground himself – and it is that deep creativity and voice that is used in this memoir to tell the realities and casual brutalities he encountered. Knowing little about his family background, after many years he managed to access his 18 years of “official records”. Copies of those are given in this book, as he transcribes the texts for the reader he also talks to his experiences – the parallel reality of his life that ran alongside them.
This is not a comfortable read. Lemn (a child of several different names) who was born in 1967 to an Ethiopian mother and an unnamed father spent his early days in a “mother and baby home” in the North West. When his mother returned to Ethiopia without agreeing to his adoption he fell into the care of the local authority – and a legal limbo where he could not be easily adopted. He was therefore placed in a long term foster placement. Unable to remember anything else this became his “real family” for nearly twelve years. When that placement failed he was moved to a “family unit” and when his behaviour became more erratic, as he challenged the rules and came to the attention of the police, he found himself as a resident in a “reform school” that contained not just the distressed but young remand or convicted residents. This was a locked unit and was run on strictly regulated lines. Lemn did have a supportive social worker who within the resources tried to fight his corner within the constraints of bureaucratic life. He also had the charm and capacity to reach out to people who would help him regardless. Eventually he would acquire his own flat and start to build a positive and creative life for himself.
But through it all it must be remembered that this was a very different “time”, social “norms” were different and more hide bound, children were expected to be obedient. A lurking issue would be Lemn’s colour, the reactions of people to this, the discriminations. But ultimately his need to find his “family” surfaced and roots that were bedded in a different culture to the one in which he was raised in his early years.
Using the official documents “as was” the reader is immediately taken to a different time with different procedures and understandings. It may be that some older readers will recognise the procedures, rules and processes of that time. They had in many way grown out of Victorian (and older) values. Social workers still had little specialist academic training; experience built promotion was largely experienced based – with men favoured. The hidden elephant in the room would always be finance – not regulated by front line carers. The care system had its own logic at the time, but one that is now seen as seriously outdated and often unfit for purpose and long term well being of the children involved. Children would be expected to fit in to their placements – and those might not always be suitable. This was trying to make the best of a less than ideal situation a child was in, but there were clear failures and a person only has one life.
By twelve for a variety of reasons Lemn was undoubtedly struggling with his first family placement and was eventually thrown out of it. He talks positively of what was offered to him there, but it is possible to see the pain of this rejection and that he felt that the family ultimately failed him. Families are not of course perfect, many far less than that, even before you encounter one where parent are paid to care for a child. His mixture of loyalty and disillusionment are a telling indictment of the family and how it impacted on him for better and worst. But neither is he slow to admit to the problems that he caused and not only to himself. Bedding this story very firmly in himself as a child growing to adulthood he gives the salutary reminder that the “process” is around the care of real children. Children with all their vulnerabilities and need for security and protection. Yes, he has surmounted the difficulties to become a creative person who reaches out to offer connections and support to other people, often unknown. But the book makes it clear that this is probably through the actions of kind individuals not the institutions he was bedded in – he is what he is “in spite of” not “because of”. An extraordinary man.

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This was an incredibly interesting story of adoption, fostercare and racism. It would have been a much better story if more memories were included and the story didn't rely so much on the case reports. The reports stopped the slow of the story.

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As a fellow former inhabitant of Hulme, Manchester, Lemn Sissay was a familiar face around The Crescents and local hangouts, his poetry already starting to send his star into the ascendancy. So it was with much fascination that I picked up his exploration of his childhood - a life spent initially in a foster home, and then a series of care homes. It's heartbreaking stuff - from his growing up calling his foster parents Mum & Dad, to their subsequent rejection of him, throwing him into the care system and a series of increasingly brutal children's homes.
Throughout it all, he documents his search for his own identity and that of his unknown birth parents, with thought-provoking discussions on the meaning of family, race in Britain, the care system, and what it means to have nothing - no home, no name, no identity, no money....
It's an incredible story, and his is an extraordinary tale of survival. Inspirational, thought-provoking and a fascinating critique of the rotten state of British Social Services, and an uncaring care system.

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Lemn Sissay's memoir recounts his life as a UK child of the state, and his investigations into how he found himself ejected from his foster home at 12 and shepherded around to various childrens' homes. It's a stunning account of perseverance and survival, and provides shocking insight into adoption practices in the UK during the '60s and beyond. This book is at once compelling and poetic. Lemn Sissay's writing is passionate and questioning, and the reader very much feels like they are on this journey to discovery with him. The intercut letters and reports from his social worker, foster parents, 'the authority', and others add such a richness to the narrative, providing historical and emotional context. It's fascinating and frightening, all at once. A truly exceptional book.

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Lemn Sissay has an important life story to share. In his memoir, Lemn starts at the beginning, when as a baby his biological mother is forced to place him into foster care. From there, Lemn lives a life jumping from various group homes and eventually a psychiatric ward. This book highlights the racism Lemn experienced growing up, caught in a childcare system that further oppressed him.

The majority of the book is filled with Lemn’s actual case notes from his file. While I enjoyed reading the actual reports, at times I would have liked to hear Lemn’s voice and heart more. He is a man badly damaged by a system that let him down. His story is heartbreaking. It was hard to connect as closely with Lemn reading report after report.

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My Name is Why by Lemn Sissy is a brave , honest and heartbreaking memoir that shows just how badly a young boy was let down by the system and society that was supposed to have his best interest at heart. I had not read any of the author's poetry before but having read his story and seen the powerful way he uses words I am now keen to do so. I really enjoyed the samples of his poetry that were scattered throughout the book.
Lemn did not even know his real name until he was seventeen, he was called Norman by the family that fostered him from a young age, and until he sought out his birth certificate he knew nothing about his birth mother or father or how he wound up in the care of social services in the first place, in fact for many years he did not even know he was fostered. Growing up as the only Black child in a white family proved challenging, but for the first twelve or so years Lemn felt loved and accepted by his foster parents, and acted as a big brother to their children, unfortunately as he entered his teenage years that relationship broke down and he wound up in a care home. Reading about his feelings of abandonment and confusion at this time would melt the hardest of hearts, but I have to admire the clarity with which the author describes them. I was fascinated by the excerpts from the social worker's reports interspersed throughout the book , and how the same situation was described so differently in their accounts when compared to Lemns.
This short book is one I would highly recommend, with the warning that it will stir your emotions and tug at your heartstrings.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

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