Today is my dad’s birthday.
In 2022 he was diagnosed with mixed dementia and we have been on a rollercoaster ever since.
In his working life, he was a teacher, a magistrate, and an advocate for the voiceless.
He taught me so much and gave me everything he could, but the greatest thing he ever gave me was poetry.
A keen poet and one of the most animated storytellers I’ve ever known, it was always a joy to watch him recount one of his many tales (even though I had usually heard them a dozen times before).
His life has been rich in experience, and he has passed on that wealth willingly and selflessly.
This year I gathered some of my own memories, stories, and poems, as well as some of the lessons he taught, and I wrote him a book focused on life as a Black person in London – a reflection, if you will, on my experiences as a second-gen Windrush baby, gratefully navigating easier waters than my parents did.
The Teacher’s Daugher is very different – quirky even – but it is raw, it is real, and it was written with love and in honour of a man who may never now know how much he means to me.
It is available to buy now, today, on his birthday.
Buy a signed copy here.
Serena Malcolm 
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