Lemn Sissay
As he releases his new memoir, My Name Is Why, poet and writer Lemn Sissay reveals the reads that have shaped him
MY FAVOURITE CHARACTER IS…
Presently, it’s Lisbeth Salander of the Millennium series, a trilogy by Stieg Larsson. Salander had a terrifying childhood of abuse. She remembers everything. With meticulous detail, she waits until she is an adult and exacts revenge.
I don’t personally believe in revenge, but I love reading about it. That’s the beauty of books.
MY FAVOURITE LINE FROM A BOOK IS… MY FAVOURITE BOOK AS A CHILD WAS…
The Famous Five books were lined up on the bookshelf in the front room of my foster parents’ house. I used to get lost in a world of cliffs and coves. I loathed finishing books and have that same anxiety today. Maybe it’s because outside the imagination was another world, one I couldn’t understand and didn’t want to be in.
THE BOOK I RELATE TO THE MOST IS…
Though my birth mother was not a refugee when I was born, there is a lot to learn from The Refugee Journey. Essentially, it is the hero narrative. Benjamin Zephaniah’s Refugee Boy is the novel I most relate to right now. How could I not relate to the central character, a fostered boy called Alem who finds himself in England? Benjamin Zephaniah was looking for a younger writer to adapt Refugee Boy for the stage, but I pleaded with him and, finally, he granted me permission. The stage adaptation has recently been added to the GCSE
English Literature qualification.
THE BOOK THAT GOT ME THROUGH A DIFFICULT TIME WAS…
The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd. Shepherd took me away from the world I know into the world I once knew, of Scotland and the wildness of nature. For me, it was the Highlands, Lochinver and Suilven mountain. It’s a book of meditation and wildness. Shepherd lifts the tiniest detail and observes it, connecting it to her as if it were skin. Another Scottish writer, John Burnside, said, ‘Metaphor is as close as a human can be to their environment.’ Shepherd helped me understand that nature has the answers, if I listen to it.
MY FAVOURITE QUOTE IS…
‘The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.’ – Mark Twain. My name, Lemn, is an Amharic word and it means ‘why’. It’s the quote that I’m using for my memoir and the man who shared it with me is Tony Clayson, an orthopaedic and trauma surgeon who works in Ethiopia and Britain.
‘Fools talk, cowards are silent, wise men listen.’ I’m going to assume that ‘wise men’ means women, too. The line is from The Shadow Of The Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón.