By JENNY JOHNSTON Published: 07:34 EST, 16 November 2024 | Updated: 07:34 EST, 16 November 2024
Betty Campbell and the English language version of a new novel that retells her early life
Malachy Edwards
The inspiring life of Betty Campbell MBE (1934–2017), a native of Butetown and Wales’ first Black headteacher, is a story close to my heart.
This engaging novel, by Casia Wiliam, available in both Welsh and English, presents Betty narrating her life story to a class of children at Mount Stuart Primary School – an approach that proves highly effective.
The headteacher begins by responding to a pupil, Yassir Hassan, who shares an encounter with a racist comment from a stranger. Drawing on examples from her own life, Betty teaches the children how she responded to, challenged, and overcame racism and hardship.
Betty Campbell was born in Tiger Bay, Cardiff, in 1934 to parents of West Indian heritage. As headteacher, she became well-known for promoting Black history and a multicultural curriculum in schools.
The novel explores how her philosophy of inclusive education was rooted in her childhood experiences of the multi-ethnic, multilingual, and multi-faith community of the docks.
Pride
Through her story, we meet a range of characters from Betty’s childhood—Welsh friends and peers from Egyptian, Somali, Norwegian, and Malaysian backgrounds—as Betty explains to her pupils: “It is possible to belong to more than one country and heritage. It is something to be proud of.
“I’m Welsh, and very proud of that, but I have roots in Jamaica, Ireland, and Barbados, so the culture of all these places also belongs to me. We can all be proud of our background and learn about each other’s backgrounds too.”
The novel skilfully paints a portrait of a capable, kind, resilient, and determined woman. Betty’s childhood was challenging; her father, a sailor, was often away at sea, leaving a noticeable absence at home.
As a child, she was evacuated during the Second World War after the docks became a target for Nazi bombers. Sent to Aberdare, she learned a few Welsh phrases, while her mother traveled on weekends to help her carer with her hair care.
Moving
One moving chapter describes Betty learning of her father’s fate during the war—an emotional episode handled with sensitivity.
Despite these challenges, Betty excelled academically, winning a scholarship to a grammar school where she faced prejudice. A teacher, dismissing her aspiration to become a schoolteacher, told her, “Go back to sit down and think again, Betty.” Undeterred, Betty pursued her dream.
Betty Campbell was a trailblazer in teaching Black history in schools—a legacy now reflected in the Welsh curriculum, which includes the history of Black, Asian, and ethnic minority people.
Representation in the curriculum is as essential as it is in literature, and this accessible, informative book has brought the inspiring story of one of the most influential Black Welsh figures of our time to children and young people across Wales.
The novel is available in English and Welsh from Gwasg Carreg Gwalch and the Books Council for Wales website.
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Your support helps us to tell the storyFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.Your support makes all the difference.CloseRead moreDenzel Washington has made a surprising claim about his film career.The Oscar-winning Hollywood star shared the revelation while promoting Gladiator II, Ridley Scott’s long-awaited follow-up to his 2000 epic starring Russell Crowe.As the film is unveiled upon the world, with the end result proving somewhat divisive, Washington is getting nostalgic about his acting career, revealing that he is less impressed with his output in the 1990s.According to the actor, the decade started strong, with his performance in Spike Lee’s Malcolm X a partiular highlight. However, after the biopic, which earnt him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor, Washington claims he starred in “some real clunkers”.Washington didn’t mention specific films, but in a new interview with The Times, said: “Look them up – I won’t say their names. They are all in the 1990s. But I was earning. I had responsibilities.”After Malcolm X, Washington starred as Don Pedro in Kenneth Branagh’s Shakespeare adaptation Much Ado About Nothing and had a starring role opposite Tom Hanks in Philadelphia. He also appeared in legal drama The Pelican Brief.The movies Washington could be talking about include sci-fi Virtuosity, family comedy The Preacher’s Wife, war drama Courage Under Fire and action film The Siege.Supernatural thriller Fallen, sports drama He Got Game, crime film The Bone Collector and Norman Jewison’s The Hurricane are Washington’s other credits released that decade The actor’s acclaimed films in the 1990s include Devil in a Blue Dress, and Crimson Tide, which was directed by his frequent collaborator, and Ridley’s brother, Tony Scott, who died in 2012.Denzel Washington in ‘Gladiator II’
A touching memory that’ll last a lifetime. There’s a famous saying in Japan, “hana yori dango“, which literally translates as “dango over flowers” and is used to mean “substance over form“. This meaning comes from the fact that dango (sweet glutinous rice balls skewered on a stick) are often eaten at hanami flower-viewing picnics, and…
Is RFK Jr. the kind of Cabinet member Republicans want?
Photo: Kenny Holston/Redux
Every new presidential administration must choose between cautious measures to consolidate political power and politically risky steps to accomplish policy goals immediately. On a scale of one to ten, from the former to the latter, Trump 2.0 is looking like an 11. If his initial explosion of nominees for the Cabinet and key White House jobs is any indication, the 47th president is determined to blow up the federal government as we have known it, regardless of the political ramifications for his party. You could argue that’s a predictable course of action for a 78-year-old “populist” demagogue who has run his last political campaign and has often expressed hostility to the Republican “Establishment” he now controls. But the big question as the shock wears off from Trump’s initial maneuvers is whether Republicans will roll over and watch their president destroy their own future prospects, along with the government he clearly wishes to disable.
This isn’t a theoretical question, at least for the newly empowered Republican majority in the Senate. For those who would prefer to redirect the federal government in a conservative direction instead of burning it to the ground, nominations like Matt Gaetz for attorney general, Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for secretary of Health and Human Services should be existentially alarming. Whatever you believe voters were doing in giving Trump his narrow victory (and the best explanations involve fairly narrow modifications of economic and immigration policies), there’s no evidence at all of a popular mandate for the systematic demolition enterprise he is undertaking now. Accordingly, the odds of a huge midterm reaction (not to mention a Democratic comeback in 2028) that denies Republicans much of the power they now hold are pretty high, particularly if the alleged economic magic of the first Trump term does not return.
In other words, there is a fundamental conflict between the political interests of the GOP and its recently installed lord and master that will come to a crucial test very soon. For Senate confirmations, it will only take four Republican defections to deny Trump any given nominee. And for all the talk of Trump playing four-dimensional chess with outrageous nominations he expects the Senate to reject, it’s more likely that he will go medieval on Senate defectors who oppose any of his nominees. Indeed, he could deem the most outrageous appointments to be the most essential to his plan to destroy the “deep state,” with no particular concern as to who inherits the ruins.
Presumably there are people around Trump (including his young vice-president-elect, who is the most likely Trump successor in 2028, and relatively young MAGA members of Congress) who may not share the sort of future-is-now orientation of the old man in the Oval Office. Perhaps they can convince the Boss to make his first year back in power less apocalyptic and less focused on settling scores with his presumed enemies at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue and in federal agencies everywhere. And maybe the newly minted Senate majority leader, John Thune (with support from Trump’s close ally House Speaker Mike Johnson), can convince the White House that a scorched-earth policy is the one thing that might turn the defeated and discouraged ranks of the opposition into the nucleus of a powerful “resistance” to the party in power.
For now, Republicans have to make a quick decision about whether to bend the knee one more time and hope for the best or to begin their own resistance to an administration that does not seem to care about the future so long as it is radically different from anything that came before. The clock is ticking.
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Ticket stubs, a set of keys, a pair of jeans, a faded airline boarding pass, a marriage proposal scrawled on the back of a receipt, worn-out work boots, muddy slobbered-on tennis balls – these ordinary but dear items are among the keepsakes photographer Shana Novak has dignified through photography and captured in the pages of her addicting book “The Heirloomist – 100 Treasures and the Stories They Tell” (Chronicle Books, April 2024). Warning: This book could make you never throw anything sentimental away again. But that is not the point! The point is to find those few poignant items in your life and elevate them.Now, you’ve heard me say, it’s not the stuff, but the stories behind the stuff that compel us to cling. Well, Novak’s book illustrates exactly that. In fact, I almost didn’t get this column written because the striking pictures of these everyday items and their tender stories so absorbed me. Of the 100 items featured, most belong to workaday folks, but some belong to celebrities. A library ladder chockfull of books portrays a passion of writer and activist Gloria Steinem. A bronze sculpture of a pregnant yogi that model Christy Turlington felt moved to buy when she was pregnant foreshadows the nonprofit dedicated to maternal health the fashion model would start years later. The dust-laden desert boots that TV journalist Bob Woodruff was wearing in Iraq when an explosion injured him represents an iconic moment. Most of Novak’s heirloom photography, however, happens beyond the book. Also known as The Heirloomist, Novak makes it her business to photograph cherished keepsakes clients send her. “My job is to make something seemingly ordinary feel magical,” she said. Whether whimsical or sobering, all the photographed objects once hung on the wall have the same effect. They beg viewers to ask, “Why?”“Why do I have a picture of old running shoes on my wall? Let me tell you …” and from there the conversation and the memories flow.Fascinated, I called Novak, to learn more:Marni: How did you get started being a chronicler of people’s memorabilia?Shana: When my grandmother was around age 90, she was feeling her own mortality, and started telling me pretty cool stories of the many interesting things she had kept, like the metal plate that had once been implanted in her leg after a golf cart ran her over. She stored that in a closet right next to her fine sterling silverware. When I heard these stories, I did what I do. I started taking pictures.How did you get your start in the photography business?I have worked in photography, in both fashion and advertising, for 15 years alongside some of the best food stylists, prop stylists, veteran photographers, and giants in industry. I learned a lot on the job. Moving into heirlooms just happened. Now people from all over the world send me their stuff. I’ve photographed about 1,500 heirlooms. Most of us think of an heirloom as a cherished valuable relic from an ancient relative. What do you call an heirloom?An heirloom can be anything, expensive or humble, as long as it tells your story, a story you want to keep alive for generations.If you had a litmus test for choosing an item to memorialize, what would it be?Does it make you want to smile? If something makes you feel nice and warm and fuzzy, that’s what we want. I like to help people bring something to life that deserves to be on the wall instead of in a drawer or closet, and that will make them feel happy every time they look at it.Don’t feel pressured to memorialize something that doesn’t speak to you, or that makes you feel sad or stressed. For instance, if military medals from a family member who died in service, make you sad, it’s OK to keep those a box. What are some of the most common items you shoot? I get a lot of pregnancy sticks. That’s always fun. I also get teddy bears in the worst condition.Making a really loved stuffed animal look charming can be challenging. Matchbooks are popular. Most get thrown in a drawer, but if you brought home the matchbook, it probably represents a special moment. Oh, and lots of cowboy boots. They’re among my favorite objects to photograph. They are tall, and proud, and so textural. They just speak.
IPOH: The Sultan of Perak, Sultan Nazrin Shah, today consented to receive RM9.7 million in business zakat (tithe) contributions from seven corporate entities, which were handed over to the Perak Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Council (MAIPk) during a ceremony at Istana Iskandariah in Kuala Kangsar. MAIPk, in a statement, said the handover began with Ipoh Specialist Hospital Sdn Bhd, represented by Chief Executive Officer Badrul Hisyam Ibrahim, contributing zakat worth RM1,057,200. This was followed by Felcra Berhad, represented by its Chief Executive Officer Datuk Idris Lasim, with a contribution of RM1,035,816. Other contributors included Koperasi Kemajuan Tanah Perak Berhad, represented by Chairman Datuk Mohammed Akhiar Ahmad Wazir Affandi, with zakat amounting to RM128,523, and Koperasi Warisan Pegawai Hutan Melayu Negeri Perak Berhad, represented by Chairman Nor Sharifuddin Yeop Sabar, contributing RM423,276. Also contributing was Lembaga Air Perak (LAP) with RM4.7 million, represented by General Manager Lokman Abd Rahim, while Lumut Maritime Terminal Sdn Bhd, represented by Chief Executive Officer Datuk Mubarak Ali Gulam Rasul, donated RM1.7 million. Menteri Besar Incorporated of Perak (MB Inc) contributed RM650,000, represented by its Chief Executive Officer Datuk Anuar Zainal Abidin. The event was also attended by Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Saarani Mohamad, Raja Kecil Sulong Perak Raja Datuk Seri Ahmad Nazim Azlan Shah Raja Ashman Shah, Orang Kaya Bendahara Seri Maharaja Tan Sri Dr Mohd Zahidi Zainuddin, Perak State Secretary Datuk Ahmad Suaidi Abdul Rahim, MAIPk President Tan Sri Mohd Annuar Zaini, and MAIPk Chief Executive Officer Syamsul Hazeman Md Salleh. Earlier, Sultan Nazrin Shah also presented letters of appointment to new MAIPk members, including Perak Education Director Safuan Raba’ai.
The highly-praised war drama film, Atonement, is scheduled for a television broadcast this weekend, providing fans with another opportunity to view the Oscar-winning movie. The film will be shown on BBC One on Saturday night at 11:10pm and will subsequently be available on BBC iPlayer. Atonement features a star-studded cast including James McAvoy, Keira Knightley,…
The new Labour Party government has stepped in to warn UK tourists to “think twice” about holidays to a popular hotspot. Labour Party government MP and Health Secretary Wes Streeting has issued a stark warning to Britons about the dangers of cut-price cosmetic surgery in Turkey. Mr Streeting spoke out after a spate of deaths…
Diane LaRue, special to The Citizen
Although Thanksgiving is a few weeks away, it feels like everyone is already shopping for holiday gifts. And so it’s time for my annual Books Make Great Gifts Guide. There’s something for everyone on your list, and remember that books are so easy to wrap!Biographies and memoirs are popular this season, especially from celebrities. Cher’s memoir is titled simply “Cher: The Memoir, Part One” because her life is so big (she has been in the spotlight for six decades), it will require two volumes. “Part Two” publishes next year.Ina Garten, known as the Barefoot Contessa, usually publishes a new cookbook every year, but this year she gives us a fascinating memoir, “Be Ready When The Luck Happens.” Your best friend who watches the Food Network will love this one.Everyone was a fan of Johnny Carson, and Bill Zehme with Mike Thomas’ new biography, “Carson the Magnificent,” would make a great gift for Dad, as would Max Boot’s “Reagan,” which shines new light on the life of Ronald Reagan.
People are also reading…
Other nonfiction titles that would make a good gift for your son-in-law include Adam Higginbotham’s “Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space,” and Yuval Noah Harari’s “Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks From the Stone Age to AI.” Sy Montgomery has written brilliantly about pigs and octopuses, and now she has “What the Chicken Knows” for the animal enthusiast on your list.For your favorite chef, Martha Stewart has “Martha: The Cookbook: 100 Favorite Recipes with Lessons and Stories From My Kitchen,” or perhaps they would like Stanley Tucci’s “What I Ate In One Year — and Other Thoughts” as he takes us through a year in his life through food.If you have fiction fans on your list, Susan Rieger’s stunning “Like Mother Like Mother” shares the story of three generations of women and how the decisions they each make affects the following generation.Liane Moriarty’s “Here One Moment” starts on a airplane sitting on a tarmac. When one passenger stands up and predicts how and when each person will die, it is disconcerting until one prediction comes true, then it is life-altering for all.Richard Price’s “Lazarus Man” takes place in 2008 East Harlem as a tenement building blows up, and we see how it affects everyone who lived there and the police investigating it.If your neighbor loves a good Hallmark Christmas movie, Susan Mallery’s “One Big Happy Family” is the perfect holiday read.Romantasy is a hot genre now, and your adult niece who read the “Iron Flame” series would enjoy Shelby Mahurin’s “The Scarlet Veil.”You could give your aunt two fantastic reads: Niall Williams has two novels that take place in a small Irish town, “This Is Happiness” along with new release “Time of the Child.”Mystery fans will enjoy Richard Osman’s (of the “Thursday Murder Club” series) new standalone novel “We Solve Murders,” about a retired cop who teams up with his daughter-in-law to discover who is trying to kill her. It’s a real page-turner, with terrific characters and some hilarious dialogue.
Diane LaRue
Moving on to the younger readers, Katherine Rundell’s “Impossible Creatures” is for young adult readers who are into fantasy novels.Middle grade readers are big fans of Rick Riordan’s “Percy Jackson” books, and his new one “Wrath of the Triple Goddess” continues the series that features mythological themes.Book series are big with younger readers, and you can’t go wrong with Dav Pilkey’s newest “Dog Man” title: “Big Jim Begins.” Other series that younger readers enjoy include “The Investigators,” about alligator private eyes, and the “Wings of Fire” and “Dragon Masters” series that appeal to the younger fantasy readers.The “Bad Guys” series is humorous, and Kate DiCamillo’s “Mercy Watson” series delights elementary school-age children. For graphic novel readers, you can’t go wrong with “The Babysitters Club” and “Amulet” series of books.For the littlest ones, Sherry Duskey Rinker has a new board book: “Construction Site: Garbage Crew to the Rescue,” for fans of all her construction book series. Mo Willems is hugely popular with kiddies, and his “Don’t Let the Pigeons Drive the Sleigh” has a holiday theme.No one is more popular with the toddler set than YouTube sensation Ms. Rachel, and she has a board book, “Ms. Rachel and the Special Surprise,” that will enchant your grandchild.I hope you found something here for everyone on your list. Remember to support local indie bookstores — most of them have online shopping — or go to bookshop.org to support independent bookstores.
Diane LaRue is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and blogs about books at http://bookchickdi.blogspot.com. She is president of the Friends of Webster Library and manages the Book Cellar, a nonprofit used bookstore that benefits branch libraries of the New York Public Library in New York City.
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