A story of mothers and daughters, of a struggle with racial identity and a journey to find a sense of belonging

‘Where are you from?’ is a question I always find hard to answer. 1971: an ad in Nursery World. Private foster parents required for a three-month-old baby – me. The lucky applicants are a 57-year-old white woman and her daughter, who love babies, especially black babies.

My mother arrives, a haughty Nigerian woman in a convertible with a moses basket on the seat beside her, setting the net curtains in this all-white council estate twitching. And though the whole place makes my privileged mother’s skin crawl, she returns to London with an empty basket beside her, choosing this home for me because, unusually for the estate, my foster mother talks proper, and I’ll need a posh white accent for the bright future I have ahead of me.

I’ll cling onto that idea – that I’ve a bright future ahead of me – even though there’s nothing in my upbringing to warrant it. Even though my mother’s love consists of long absences, confusing behaviour and dauntingly high expectations. Even though my foster mother’s love is overwhelming and suffocating. Even though I seem to be a magnet for abusive sexual attention from  men I barely know. Even though the authorities have no idea where to put me or where I belong, and nor, really, do I.

And even when I fall pregnant at eighteen and find myself back in the rural town I’d tried to escape from, with a tiny baby dependent on me, I still think the future’s out there. I’ll find it, whatever it takes.

Precious is the story of growing up black in a white community, of struggling to find an identity that fits amid conflicting messages, of deciphering a childhood full of secrets and dysfunction. Painfully honest, swerving from farce to tragedy, Precious has a spirit that refuses to be crushed.

About the author

Precious Williams was first published aged eight when her poem took first prize in a poetry competition (she won £2).

Since then she has been a Contributing Editor at Elle, Cosmopolitan and the Mail on Sunday. Precious' work has also been published in The Times, The Daily Telegraph, the Financial Times, Glamour, Korean Vogue, New York magazine, Wallpaper and several other publications. Her journalism focuses on health and lifestyle features and celebrity interviews. Notable interviewees include Nina Simone, Yoko Ono, Jon Bon Jovi, P Diddy, Bryan Ferry, Lenny Kravitz and Naomi Campbell.

Born in the UK, Precious is of Sierra Leonean and Nigerian descent and she has lived in London and in New York. She studied Periodical Journalism at the London College of Printing and English Language & Literature at Oxford.

Her first book, Precious: A True Story is a memoir about her childhood in foster care. The book is titled Color Blind in the US. Both editions will be published by Bloomsbury in August 2010.
www.preciouswilliams.com


Color Blind Tour Stops

Monday, July 12       Books And...(live chat)
Tuesday, July 13      Reads4Pleasure
Wednesday, July 14 BrownGirl BookSpeak
Thursday, July 15     Arms of a Sister
Friday, July 16          Precision Reviews