I grew up in Hackney in a little terrace house with an outdoor toilet. My mum and dad were really strict. They were post-Windrush generation parents, quite scared about bringing me and my three sisters up, making sure that we were prepared for life, because it wasn’t going to be that easy. Like a lot of immigrant parents, they were always cautious, really nervous. And I was taught, very young, that to have anything decent, you had to sacrifice. There was no slacking allowed.
I was more afraid of my dad disciplining me than any teacher or policeman. With his friends, he was Mr Personality, he had the most charisma of any man I knew. He was the overlord of everything. I looked at him with a mixture of admiration and fear. It wasn’t a lovey-dovey upbringing. I felt more of a sense of duty. But it did prepare me for real life.
