Roots and Rebellion: Personal Stories of Resisting Racism and Reclaiming Identity

Despite the UK’s long history of racial injustice, people from minoritised groups have fought back, engaging in advocacy, activism, and every-day acts of resistance to create positive change.
This anthology is a prize-winning collection of these stories, spanning generations, cultures, and communities. They tell of subtle everyday acts of resistance like cooking traditional dishes from recipes passed down from grandparents displaced from their homelands, challenging microaggressions in the workplace, and sending care packages to relatives in occupied states. They also highlight bold and defiant rebellions such as building a successful business from scratch and against the odds, making perilous journeys, and fighting unlawful deportation.
The fabric of these stories is made up of resistance, but also of belonging. They explore the complexities of feeling caught between identities as well as the joyful freedom found in reclaiming and rediscovering who you are.
Full of humanity and bravery, this inspiring and unique kaleidoscope of journeys speaks to how nuanced and personal resistance against racism can be.

Hamzah Malik is the founder of award-winning marketing company Regent Branding, which he launched after working in the corporate world and publishing industry. He’s also a fantasy author, having self-published his first novel, Arias Archer & the Shadow Cloak in 2018, and The Very Bizarre in 2023. A passionate entrepreneur and author, Hamzah has spoken at various events and schools about the power of writing and is passionate about instilling a sense of excitement and ambition in the next generation.
Miriam Landor lives in Orkney, a northern Scottish archipelago. She has degrees in English literature, education and psychology. Previously writing in academic and professional fields, she now focuses on narrative non-fiction and fiction. Miriam’s memoir / family history won an award in Creative Scotland’s Our Voices project, and her poem celebrating George Mackay Brown’s centenary will appear in Salt Songs anthology. She finds the Orkney seas perfect for all-year swimming.
Jen McPherson is a 33-year-old journalism student at News Associates. She is a freelance journalist with articles published in the Guardian and the Telegraph. She has written a chapter about her experience with Bipolar disorder due to be published in a book about mental health by Harper Collins in May 2023. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, swimming, and reading. She is half Japanese, and half Scottish.
Debbie Iromlou is an Intercountry and Transracial adoptee who was born in 1968. Her birth origins are Kuwaiti Iranian. She was raised in foster care in a white English community and discovered the truth about her parents after she was adopted as a teenager. Debbie has spent her life searching for birth relatives and cultural connection. She is the founder of TAAN, the Transracial adult adoptee network and co-founder of the Adult Adoptee Movement, a collective group of adoptees who are trying to make positive changes for people who have been adopted. She also facilitates two support groups for adult adoptees in London. Debbie uses her lived experience to help others heal and raise awareness around the dislocation, alienation and isolation that occurs from being raised in a white foster or adoptive home without a biological identity or same race role models.
T.P.K. Paul is a landscape fine artist, previous art teacher, and independent counsellor whose interests include creative writing and memoir especially following the birth of her children. Environment, landscape, and our attachment to it is at the forefront of her writing. She hopes to be able to develop her writing career and become a professional writer.
Zoe Lorimer (she/her) is a Black-Scottish astrologer, writer and artist from Edinburgh. She has now returned to Scotland after eight years teaching in East Asia. Passionate about social well-being and racially-marginalised communities, Zoe writes to educate herself and others. Her writing has been featured internationally by Black Ballad, Ketagalan Media and The News Lens International.
Zita Holbourne is a multi-award winning, writer, human rights/equality campaigner, artist, community activist and trade unionist. Her arts practice includes creating work as a writer, poet, visual artist, vocalist and curator. She is the author of the book Striving for Equality, Freedom and Justice by Hansib Publications and has contributed to over 40 books. Zita is part of UNESCO Coalition of Artists for the General History of Africa. She is also the co-founder and National Chair of BARAC UK (Black Activists Rising Against Cuts) and is the joint National Chair of Artists Union England. She has exhibited art, performed poetry, and spoken globally and campaigns for equality, freedom, justice and human rights through arts and activism.
Laura Godfrey-Isaacs: Laura is an artist, midwife, writer and birth activist. She combines her artistic and healthcare practice, to bring fresh interdisciplinary perspectives to support reproductive justice, and evolve feminist readings of the body. Her narrative non-fiction writing also includes an exploration of her Jewish heritage, reflecting on how to keep a minority culture alive particularly through stories of remembrance, and food culture.
Karis Walker-Stuart is a 21-year-old woman from South London. Her story unveils a testament to the strength and resilience of a young Black Woman navigating a world designed to suffocate her spirit. Karis grew up in vibrant an eventful town where the concept of rebellion was etched into the fibres of her being, shaping her identity and igniting a fire within her that would burn relentlessly. As she journeyed through education, the power of creativity and imagination became her sanctuary, weapon and salvation. Whilst studying for her Architecture Bachelor’s degree she transformed one of her childhood dreams into a reality and is now CEO of a top Black owned bakery ’Kakesbykaz’, and she aspires to develop the Brand ’KBK’ into a global franchise.
Margaret Drummond grew up mostly in the UK in a Dutch/Lithuanian family and studied languages at university. She spent her career teaching in London secondary schools and is now retired and volunteers as a translator. Margaret writes fiction as well as pieces about her family and is especially interested in how cultures have merged and changed over time. She is currently working on her second novel.
Dawid Konotey-Ahulu is a British Ghanaian entrepreneur based in London. He grew up in Ghana and came to the UK in 1979, at the age of 16. He studied law and applied to work in a set of barristers’ chambers. They told him they had just taken on a Black barrister and couldn’t do so again for another couple of years. He switched to a career in banking, before leaving in 2006 to set up an advisory consulting firm. In 2018 he was named Black Business Entrepreneur of the Year. In 2023 he was awarded a CBE for services to Diversity and Inclusion.