Sancho navigates society high and low

 

How does Charles Ignatius Sancho meet the King, write and play highly acclaimed music, and become the first Black person to vote in Britain? Based on the true story of Sancho’s debut novel about the first Black man in Britain who led the fight to end slavery.

1746 Georgian London is not a safe place for a young Black man, especially one who has escaped slavery. After the twinkling lights in the Fleet Street coffee shops are blown out and the great houses have closed their doors for the night, Sancho must dodge slave catchers and worse. The man he hoped would help- a kindly duke who taught him to write – is dying Sancho is desperate and utterly alone.

It is time for him to tell his story, one that begins on the tempestuous Atlantic Ocean, and ends at the very centre of London life. And through it all, he must ask, born amongst death, how much can you achieve in one short life?

British actor, Paterson Joseph, who has just been announced as the chancellor of Oxford Brookes University, tells the true story of a Great Black Briton.

Less is known about Sancho, reputedly the first African to publish a book in England, in 1782. Joseph spent more than two decades researching his subject, and he chooses a stately, quasi-18th-century style for this narrative of a young black man who, with a few helping hands and more setbacks, becomes a writer and celebrity. Sancho navigates society high and low with likable goodwill and optimism, recounting his life story for his son.

The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho by Paterson Joseph, Dialogue Books £16.99