Coming to England: An Inspiring True Story Celebrating the Windrush Generation

Product Information

Coming to England is such a popular book that it seemed a great idea to make a picture book version so younger children can enjoy it too. People might think it's easy writing a picture book, but it's not, especially when you've got quite a complicated real life story such as Coming to England. No, it was always an autobiographical story. In fact, when I wrote it at first it was twice as long and had to be edited to be so much shorter. So I didn't conceive it as a picture book until now. Coming to England is a picture book about the life of Floella Benjamin. Reading it will tell you about how she achieved her dream. Within the North Atlantic Ocean, tropical or subtropical cyclones are named by the National Hurricane Centre when they are judged to have intensified into a tropical storm with winds of at least 65 km/h, (40 mph). The World Meteorological Organisation maintains six alphabetical lists of names which alternate between masculine and feminine and are used on a six-year cycle. Significant tropical cyclones have their names retired from the lists, with a replacement name selected at the next World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) meeting. Why are there no storms for Q, U, X, Y and Z?

Her story really has power. The young Floella wants to meet the Queen, little does she know, she will grow up to meet the Queen! Was the plot exciting, thought-provoking, serious or light-hearted (or any mixture of these)?Exciting. Not only did Floella learnt about England, I did too!! Baroness Benjamin charts her own journey to England as part of the Windrush generation in this gorgeously illustrated book about how courage and determination can triumph over adversity It was important to have someone who has gone through some aspect of what I was writing. When you have that personal experience, it's great to get an opportunity to share it with society through a book and make a difference.You look at it holistically. I had to think very carefully about what I wanted very young children to know and grasp. Some of them know about moving to a new place, so they can understand the concept of moving. Some of them know about parents leaving, even if it's for a couple of weeks, so they know the emotional feeling that gives you.

This book is great fun to read. There are so many lovely colours in the pictures. Everyone will enjoy it!

If you will arrive in England after 4am, Friday 18 March, you do not need to take any COVID-19 tests or fill in a UK passenger locator form. I was very much involved in finding Diane. My publishers Macmillan Children's Books showed me work from at least a dozen illustrators. We wanted a very specific look for the book, something that is really warm and engaging and captured my story exactly right. Is this picture book version the kind of book you dreamt about reading when you were on Play School? A story of a Windrush generation girl who came to Britain in 1960 from the Caribbean. Adapted from the book Coming to England, which was written for children everywhere.