Eight Weeks: A deeply moving and inspiring memoir of looking back, moving forward, defying the odds - Softcover

Young, Baroness Lola

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0241590647 ISBN 13: 9780241590645

Publisher: Penguin, 2025

Synopsis

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WESTMINSTER BOOK AWARDS

'I am in awe of the woman who grew from the child in this book ... The pure character necessary to grow through this dark entangled forest of childhood is the stuff of legends. Bravissima' LEMN SISSAY, author of My Name is Why

Eight Weeks is a deeply moving and inspiring memoir that tells the remarkable life story of Baroness Young of Hornsey, from her childhood in foster care, to becoming one of the first Black women in the House of Lords.

Lola Young has been an actress, an academic, an activist and campaigner for social justice, and a crossbench peer. But from the age of eight weeks to eighteen years, she was moved between foster care placements and children's homes in North London. It would take many decades before she was able to begin the search for answers to the long-standing questions that would help her make sense of her childhood.

In Eight Weeks, through her care records, fragments of memory, and her imagination where parts of her story are missing, Lola assembles the pieces of her past into a portrait of a childhood in a system that often made her feel invisible and unwanted. Alongside glimpses into her life as a peer, activist, and campaigner it tells the powerful story of her determination to defy the odds.

Eight Weeks is a spirited, eye-opening and beautifully written account of being a child in care and a Black child in a white family and is a vital part of contemporary Black British history.

'A remarkable account of rejection, resilience and resolve' MICHELLE GAYLE
'Beautiful and harrowing, deeply unsettling and profoundly life-affirming' JOHN AKOMFRAH
'Superb, moving' HELENA KENNEDY LT KC
'An inspiring story from an inspirational storyteller' GARY YOUNGE

About this title

About the Author

Baroness Lola Young of Hornsey became one of the first Black Women members of the House of Lords in 2004. Raised in foster care in north London, she studied at the New College of Speech and Drama, then worked as an actress, before becoming Professor of Cultural Studies at Middlesex University. Later, she worked in arts administration before receiving an OBE in 2001 and becoming an independent crossbench member of the House of Lords. She is active in campaigns on modern slavery and ethical fashion. In 2017 she was on the Man Booker Prize judging panel, and she is also Chancellor of the University of Nottingham.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0241590647
• ISBN 13: 9780241590645
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336