The largest Pakistani community in the UK is to be found in Birmingham. Muslim pupils are already the majority religious group in the local schools. Ever since the days of the Lunar Men, Birmingham has been a leader of cities. But, can it sustain this success without the active involvement of its Pakistani community? This extensively researched letter from one of its 'adopted' sons is directed at everyone who cares for the city. It catalogues the development of Pakistani-Birmingham over the past 60 years. It also draws attention to their wholesale exclusion from centres of opportunities and power across the city. Is it time for positive action strategies; even a new 'social contract' to be put in place? For the journey ahead, a route map is suggested in the form of 'Birmingham Principles'
A beautiful commemorative edition of Dr. Martin Luther King's essay "Letter from Birmingham Jail," part of Dr. King's archives published exclusively by HarperCollins. With an afterword by Reginald Dwayne Betts On April 16, 1923, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., responded to an open letter written and published by eight white clergyman admonishing the civil rights demonstrations happening in Birmingham, Alabama. Dr. King drafted his seminal response on scraps of paper smuggled into jail. King criticizes his detractors for caring more about order than justice, defends nonviolent protests, and argues for the moral responsibility to obey just laws while disobeying unjust ones. "Letter from Birmingham Jail" proclaims a message - confronting any injustice is an acceptable and righteous reason for civil disobedience. This beautifully designed edition presents Dr. King's speech in its entirety, paying tribute to this extraordinary leader and his immeasurable contribution, and inspiring a new generation of activists dedicated to carrying on the fight for justice and equality.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BESTSELLER 2022 NATIONAL INDIE EXCELLENCE AWARDS FINALIST — MEMOIR "Shot through with hope, purpose and an unflinching love, it's a story that must be read." —Newsweek "Essential, poignant, and insightful reading." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review Award-winning columnist and author David Magee addresses his poignant story to all those who will benefit from better understanding substance misuse so that his hard-earned wisdom can save others from the fate of his late son, William. The last time David Magee saw his son alive, William told him to write their family’s story in the hopes of helping others. Days later, David found William dead from an accidental drug overdose. Now, in a memoir suggestive of Augusten Burroughs meets Glennon Doyle, award-winning columnist and author David Magee answers his son's wish with a compelling, heartbreaking, and impossible to put down book that speaks to every individual and family. With honesty and heart, Magee shares his family’s intergenerational struggle with substance abuse and mental health issues, as well as his own reckoning with family secrets—confronting the dark truth about the adoptive parents who raised him and a decades-long search for identity. He wrestles with personal substance misuse that began at a young age and, as a father, he sees destructive patterns repeat and develop within his own children. While striving to find a truly authentic voice as a writer despite authoring nearly a dozen previous books, Magee ultimately understands that William had been right and their own family’s history is the story he needs to tell. A poignant and uplifting message of hope translates unimaginable tragedy into an inspirational commitment to saving others, as David founded the William Magee Institute for Student Wellbeing at the University of Mississippi. His mission to share solutions to self-medication and addiction, particularly as it touches America’s high school and college students, emphasizes that William’s story is about much more than a tragic addiction—it’s an American story of a family broken by loss and remade with love. Dear William inspires readers to find purpose, build resilience, and break the cycles that damage too many individuals and the people who love them. It’s a life-changing book revealing how voids can be filled, and peace—even profound, lasting happiness—is possible.
Discover the beautiful stories of Michael Morpurgo, author of Warhorse and the nation’s favourite storyteller A moving story of a brother, a sister and a swallow, and how all are in some way victims of the horrors of landmines.
The Trojan Horse affair sent shock waves across England's education system in 2014. The affair centred around an anonymous letter that contained instructions on how to take over schools with a majority Muslim population by influencing their governing bodies and undermining head teachers. The authenticity of the letter remains hotly disputed, yet its publication generated huge turbulence - not only in Birmingham's schools and communities, but also in both Parliament and the national news. The book offers fresh perspectives based on unique access to information from within the city, written by respected educationalists who have worked successfully in Birmingham for many years both during the Trojan Horse era and since. It explains what led to the publication of the letter, its profound consequences for education in Birmingham, and how it influenced events in the city since. Crucially the book also opens up an informed discussion around the issues raised during Trojan Horse, such as delivering a well-rounded curriculum suitable for a diverse school community, developing working partnerships in the local area, and boosting the attainment and aspirations of children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Colin shares case studies of school improvement in local and national MATs in tough, multicultural urban environments, and how schools worked to develop pupils' social capital. The Birmingham Book reveals how the Trojan Horse affair was handled by the Department for Education as their academies and free schools policies underwent their first major stress tests. Furthermore, the book provides an up-to-date appraisal of the interrelationship between education in England's schools and the cultural and religious practice of the local communities the schools serve - and of the underachievement levels of the different ethnic groups in Birmingham. Suitable for teachers, school leaders, governors and policymakers.
In Dear Vulcan, Laura Davenport confronts the vexing possibilities of human intimacy, confessing, “The question is what keeps me coming back.” The crisp narrative style and confiding voice of these poems invite readers to consider the ways in which unspoken expectations shape identities and relationships. Located in settings that range from distinct places in the South, such as the Birmingham skyline or a Nashville liquor store, to the imagined landscape of “City without Women,” the poems in this scorching collection measure again and again the distance between men and women. Throughout its pages, Dear Vulcan captures an underlying tension experienced by a young woman coming of age amid the traditional patriarchy of the South, delineating connections between physical bodies, constructed selves, and landscapes that allow them to flourish. Often beginning midconversation, Davenport’s poems draw in readers with precisely rendered details as they question assumptions about the lines between memory and reality, and between identity and intimacy.
"Memory and its embodiment in a colloquial, yet highly wrought musical language are what originally drew me to Harrington's manuscript and what continues to pull me back. We learn the story of Lillian and Webster and their children and grandchildren, a black family living a hardscrabble life in the rural South more than sixty years ago. Set on the cusp of the Civil Rights era, the poems chronicle a way of life that has long since vanished."--Elizabeth Spires, from the foreword Janice N. Harrington is an award-winning children's book author and a nationally recognized storyteller. She works as a librarian in Champaign, Illinois.
