The Attic Child by Lola Jaye is a hauntingly powerful, emotionally charged and unique dual-narrative novel about family, love and loss, identity and belonging, seen through the lens of Black British history. This event, comprising a family workshop and reading by the author, explored the intersection of children's voices and colonial legacies.
The Attic Child: Family Workshop
11am - 1pm
Creative writing workshop with Lola Jaye, facilitated by Collective Encounters.
For ages 9+
The Attic Child: Reading by Lola Jaye
2.30-4.30pm
Featured a Q&A facilitated by Carol Russell.
About The Attic Child
The book’s central character is inspired by Ndugu M’Hali (c.1865-77) also known as Kalulu, sold as a slave to Sir Henry Morton Stanley during the explorer’s quest for the missing Dr Livingstone. A picture in a museum of the boy, who died during an expedition in the Congo River in 1877 aged just 12 compelled Jaye to write a story imagining what may have happened to him had he been allowed to live.
About Lola Jaye
Born in London where she grew up in foster care, Lola Jaye is an author, psychotherapist and speaker, including on issues of mental health and racism. The Attic Child (Macmillan) is her first epic historical novel.
Both events were part of WoW's Black History Month festival in collaboration with University of Central Lancashire, Collective Encounters and Bluecoat's Echoes and Origins project.