Latest news with #Wheatle
Otago Daily Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Obituary: Alex Wheatle, writer
Alex Wheatle, author, playwright and screenwriter, at the Hay Festival 2024 on May 25, 2024 in Hay-on-Wye, Wales. Dubbed the Bard of Brixton, British writer Alex Wheatle was an award-winning novelist, playwright, and youth mentor. Born in London to Jamaican parents and raised in care, Wheatle turned his life into thinly disguised fiction, documenting the realities of black British life with unparalleled depth and authenticity. Imprisoned after the 1981 Brixton riots, Wheatle's Rastafarian cellmate encouraged him to read and changed his life. Wheatle's books, including Brixton Rock, East of Acre Lane, Crongton Knights and Cane Warriors, gave voice to the struggles and triumphs of young black people navigating a complex world. In 2008, he was awarded an MBE for services to literature. Alex Wheatle died on March 16 aged 62. — APL/agencies
The Independent
20-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Upcoming BBC Crongton show will become ‘loving tribute' to author Alex Wheatle
The upcoming BBC show Crongton will become a 'loving tribute' to author Alex Wheatle following his death at the age of 62. The author, who was known as the 'Brixton Bard', was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2023, and campaigned for awareness of the condition. He wrote a string of books about life on London's streets for young black men including the Crongton series, about children growing up on a council estate and facing gang wars and other struggles. He died on Sunday, March 16, his family said, – more than a week before the first series of Crongton is due to air on the BBC on Monday. Patricia Hidalgo, director of BBC children's and education, said with the 'blessing' of Wheatle's family they will air the show as a 'celebration of Alex's incredible life and powerful stories that mean so much to so many young people'. She also said: 'We feel incredibly privileged to have worked with Alex on the adaptation of his award-winning Crongton Knights books, whose young characters leap off the page in their vibrant portrayals of the highs and lows of growing up in modern Britain.' The show's production company New Pictures said: 'Alex's warmth, generosity and humour shone out through his writing, and his work will continue to touch so many lives. 'We are so honoured to have played a part in bringing the world of Alex's Crongton books to life and the show remains a loving tribute to him.' Born on January 3 1963, Wheatle grew up in children's homes and began by writing lyrics then progressed to poetry, short stories and novels. He was also known for being part of the 1981 Brixton riot – which saw him being sent to prison, and inspired Sir Steve McQueen to direct the film Alex Wheatle about the writer's life for the anthology series Small Axe. The actor who played him, Sheyi Cole, wrote in an Instagram story that he was 'indebted' to Wheatle, and his 'story became my story'. Wheatle would later contribute to the BBC programme Battle For Brixton, and put out the fiction book East Of Acre Lane about the riot. His first novel, Brixton Rock, about a troubled London teenager getting to grips with finding his family, was published in 1999. His family posted on his Instagram, saying: 'Alex's family would like to thank you all for your support over the years in his work and we ask that you respect our privacy during this difficult time.' Author Dorothy Koomson, known for the novel and TV drama The Ice Cream Girls, wrote on Instagram that she was 'heartbroken'. She added: 'He was a wonderful person and writer. A brilliant and empathetic human being. He leaves an incredible legacy. Lots of love to those who were closest to him. Rest in peace and glory, Alex.' Fellow Prostate Cancer UK supporter and actor Colin McFarlane said he was 'shocked and saddened', and said that he 'talked about the desperate need for a national screening programme' with Wheatle. 'Prostate cancer is curable if it is diagnosed earlier, and one day I hope we can stop losing brilliant men like Alex to this disease,' he added. Wheatle joined Prostate Cancer UK in calling for the Government to overhaul NHS guidelines around prostate cancer, to lead to more diagnosis. Keith Morgan, associate director of Black Health Equity at Prostate Cancer UK, said he was 'proud to have worked with him later in life as he used his platform, and his own shocking late-stage diagnosis, to raise vital awareness of prostate cancer and campaign for change'. He added that one in four 'black men will get prostate cancer, double the risk of other men', and said that men like Wheatle 'are dying twice as much from a cancer that is treatable if caught early'. When he received his honour in 2008 for services to literature, Wheatle said: 'I know some people might say the MBE's got 'empire' on it, but there is no British empire any more. 'But more importantly, it shows young kids coming up that they can achieve and you can be successful.' On Instagram, publisher Hachette Children's Group said they were 'incredibly saddened', and added that he 'leaves behind a legacy of rich and powerful' stories.
The Guardian
20-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Alex Wheatle, novelist and ‘Brixton Bard', dies aged 62
British writer Alex Wheatle, the author of books including East of Acre Lane and the Crongton series, has died aged 62. 'It is with great sadness to inform you that Alex Wheatle, our 'Brixton Bard', sadly passed away on Sunday 16 March 2025 after his fight with prostate cancer', his family wrote in a statement on the author's Instagram page. 'For so many writers like me, Alex Wheatle was a lodestar,' said the critic Colin Grant. 'His writing was sharp, clear-eyed and generous.' Wheatle traced his interest in writing to his time in prison. After being arrested during the Brixton uprising of April 1981, Wheatle spent four months in prison, where he read CLR James, Charles Dickens, James Baldwin, Richard Wright, Langston Hughes and John Steinbeck among other authors handed to him by his cellmate. 'Whatever I achieve in this old writing game is down to the conversion I experienced under Simeon in Wormwood Scrubs,' he wrote in the Guardian in 2021. Wheatle was born in Brixton, south London, on 3 January, 1963, to Jamaican parents, and spent much of his childhood in Shirley Oaks children's home in Croydon. The fourth film of Steve McQueen's 2020 BBC anthology series Small Axe, titled Alex Wheatle, is based on the author's childhood and imprisonment. Wheatle's first novel, Brixton Rock, was published in 1999, and is about a 16-year-old who has lived in a children's home all his life. He wrote many novels for adults over the ensuing decade, including East of Acre Lane, Island Songs and The Dirty South. His first young adult novel, Liccle Bit, was longlisted for the Carnegie medal in 2016. A follow-up, Crongton Knights, won the 50th Guardian children's fiction prize the same year. Wheatle told the Guardian that he turned to writing YA novels because he was disillusioned with adult publishing. 'Even though I had a good reputation, I always felt a resistance. I didn't feel like I was making inroads. I felt like I was this token black writer who writes about ghetto stuff.' Two further Crongton books, Straight Outta Crongton and In the Ends, were published in 2017 and 2023 respectively. A BBC adaptation of the Crongton books is due to land on iPlayer next week. Wheatle was awarded an MBE for services to literature in 2008. His recent books include Home Boys, Home Girl, Cane Warriors and Kemosha of the Caribbean. In 2023, he published a memoir, Sufferah: Memoir of a Brixton Reggae Head. Wheatle's 'poignant memoir gives us insights into his own suffering: his early life in care, the bullying and abuse he endured, the brutality of the police,' wrote Lucy Popescu in a Guardian review. 'Yet Sufferah also documents his love of reggae, the joy of discovering his paternal family and his journey to become an award-winning writer.' The author 'has 26 years of legacy for you all to continue and enjoy by reading his novels, watch again the self-titled episode 'Alex Wheatle' from the Small Axe TV series and also watch the new upcoming Crongton TV series as he looks over us in spirit', said his family. 'Alex's fierce intelligence was leavened by a great sense of humour and warm smile which enveloped all who were lucky enough to find themselves in his orbit,' said Grant.
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Alex Wheatle, ‘the Bard of Brixton', who rose from tough beginnings to become an award-winning novelist
Alex Wheatle, who has died aged 62, rose to become Britain's pre-eminent black novelist after a difficult and inauspicious upbringing; his early story, which involved unhappy years in care and a spell in prison, was told in 'Alex Wheatle' (2020), one of the five films that made up the director Steve McQueen's BBC television series, Small Axe. Wheatle's writing was very much a reflection of the post-Windrush black experience in the UK; despite his life's dark start, his work is riven with a subtle humour. His debut novel Brixton Rock (1999), which received the London Arts Board New Writers Award, told the story of a boy growing up in a children's home and struggling to find his feet. 'Wheatle gives us a fascinating snapshot of black English in the early Eighties,' said the Telegraph. Wheatle's early struggles furnished the plotlines of many of his nearly 20 books, earning him the sobriquet 'Bard of Brixton'; although sometimes disguised, Brixton and its south London environs framed much of his work. Alex Alphonso Wheatle was born to Jamaican parents in Brixton on January 3 1963. Although his mother, Almira Gunter, née Panceta Da Costa, had had five children in Jamaica, her marriage there was volatile, and in 1961 she travelled to London, securing a job at Woolworths in Brixton. She met Wheatle's father Alfred, a carpenter – then, when she was six months pregnant with Alex, her husband arrived from Jamaica looking for her. A solution was arrived at: after she had given birth, she would return to Jamaica and Alfred would bring up the child. But he did so only until the boy was two, then went back to Jamaica. Alex was taken into care and spent most of his childhood at Shirley Oaks children's home in Croydon. Many years later, the home would become infamous for the psychological and physical abuse residents had suffered. Wheatle, who in later years campaigned to uncover the truth about the home, recalled: 'I would be beaten with everything, almost every day. Fire pokers. Bits of wood. Coal being thrown at me. Wooden hairbrushes. Shoes. The abuse I suffered was purely physical. Others were abused sexually, but I never was.' At the home Alex was painfully aware that he had no one. Every Sunday family members would pay visits, but his never did. 'I used to hate Sundays,' he recalled. 'Relatives were coming down and I would put on my best clothes. It really, really broke me. I used to get up really early and watch the first parents walking down to our cottage, wondering if mine would walk down behind them. But that was never the case.' He chronicled his time at Shirley Oaks in his 2023 memoir Sufferah, which tells the story of how reggae became his salvation following a childhood marred by abuse, imprisonment and police brutality. Wheatle was also partly saved by his love of reading. 'When I was about eight I was given a copy of Treasure Island. I loved it. I had an aptitude for reading from very early. When I read in bed it transported my mind to different places. Tom Sawyer transported me to the USA and I could imagine I was on a raft down the Mississippi.' Reggae provided further escape routes: in his mid-teens, under the name of Yardman Irie – who would later become a character in his second novel, East of Acre Lane – he helped to establish the Crucial Rocker sound system. 'I wrote lyrics for performances in community halls, youth clubs, house parties and blues dances.' These first efforts at writing for public consumption coincided with his move from Shirley Oaks to living alone in Brixton. But before his writing could develop, he was arrested during the Brixton riots in 1981 and given a four-month jail sentence. Fortunately for Wheatle, his cellmate at Wormwood Scrubs was an older Rastafarian who encouraged Wheatle to educate himself, introducing him to such authors as Chester Himes, Richard Wright, CLR James and John Steinbeck. But it would be nearly 20 years before Brixton Rock was published. During this time Wheatle married, became a father of three and travelled to Jamaica and tracked down his parents. Two years after Brixton Rock came East of Acre Lane, the story of Biscuit, a young petty criminal who becomes embroiled in ghetto politics and small-time gangsterism. 'Wheatle weaves witty patois dialogue and cool, crisp narrative into a tone of playful irony, wholly free of rant or rancour,' said the Telegraph. A consequence of several meetings with his parents was Wheatle's 2005 book Island Songs, a mature and measured work set largely in Jamaica, epic in scope, tragic yet hilarious, with calm and spacious prose. Ten years later Alex Wheatle was writing excellent and well-received Young Adult novels, though they were enjoyable for all ages. His 2016 YA novel Crongton Knights, set in a disguised Brixton, won that year's Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and was adapted for a BBC television series due to come out later this year. Cane Warriors (2020) was a riveting fictionalised version of a Jamaican slave rebellion in 1760. In 2024 Alex Wheatle was diagnosed with prostate cancer, which had already spread to his bone marrow. Aware of the propensity of black men to suffer from the disease he embarked on an awareness campaign, drawing on his experiences working in prisons, lecturing about literature and teaching self-help through writing. In 2008 Wheatle was appointed MBE for services to literature. Alex Wheatle married, in 1999, Beverley Robinson; they had a daughter and two sons. Alex Wheatle, born January 3 1963, died March 16 2025 Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Crongton creator Alex Wheatle dies aged 62 after prostate cancer
Alex Wheatle, who wrote a string of books about life on London's streets for young black men including the Crongton series, has died at the age of 62 after having prostate cancer. The author, who was known as the 'Brixton Bard', was diagnosed with the condition in 2023, and campaigned for awareness of the cancer. Born on January 3 1963, Wheatle grew up in children's homes and began by writing lyrics then progressed to poetry, short stories and novels. He was also known for being part of the 1981 Brixton riot – which saw him being sent to prison, and inspired Sir Steve McQueen to direct the film Alex Wheatle about the writer's life for the anthology series Small Axe. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Alex Wheatle (@alexwheatle) Wheatle would later contribute to the BBC programme Battle For Brixton, and put out the fiction book East Of Acre Lane about the events. His first novel, Brixton Rock, about a troubled London teenager getting to grips with finding his family, was published in 1999. Wheatle's A Crongton Story series, about children growing up on a council estate and facing gang wars and other struggles, has been made into the upcoming BBC show Crongton – set to begin airing on Monday. His family posted on his Instagram, saying: 'It is with great sadness to inform you that Alex Wheatle our 'Brixton Bard' sadly passed away on Sunday March 16 2025 after his fight with Prostate Cancer. 'Alex has 26 years of legacy for you all to continue and enjoy by reading his novels, watch again the self-titled episode Alex Wheatle from the Small Axe TV series and also watch the new upcoming Crongton TV series as he looks over us in spirit. 'Alex's family would like to thank you all for your support over the years in his work and we ask that you respect our privacy during this difficult time.' Fellow Prostate Cancer UK supporter and actor Colin McFarlane said he was 'shocked and saddened'. He added: 'Sadly, tragic deaths like these are all too common. We're losing far too many beloved Dads, brothers, sons, and friends to the most common cancer in men, simply because too many are diagnosed too late – and the situation is at its worst when it comes to black men. 'On several occasions when I met Alex, we talked about the desperate need for a national screening programme, and for GPs to be empowered to reach out and speak to black men about their higher risk and their right to a PSA blood test. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Prostate Cancer UK (@prostatecanceruk) 'Prostate cancer is curable if it is diagnosed earlier, and one day I hope we can stop losing brilliant men like Alex to this disease.' Wheatle joined Prostate Cancer UK in calling for the Government to overhaul NHS guidelines to allow GPs to proactively start conversations with black men about their increased risk of prostate cancer and their options for a quick and simple PSA blood test from the age of 45. Keith Morgan, associate director of Black Health Equity at Prostate Cancer UK, said: 'We're deeply saddened to hear of the loss of Alex Wheatle MBE. 'Our hearts go out to his family, friends, and the thousands he inspired through his work and activism. 'His book East Of Acre Lane had a big impact on me growing up as a young man in London, and his powerful words will live on to inspire the next generation. 'I'm proud to have worked with him later in life as he used his platform, and his own shocking late-stage diagnosis, to raise vital awareness of prostate cancer and campaign for change.' He added that one in four 'black men will get prostate cancer, double the risk of other men', and said that men like Wheatle 'are dying twice as much from a cancer that is treatable if caught early'. When he received his honour in 2008 for services to literature, Wheatle said: 'I know some people might say the MBE's got 'empire' on it, but there is no British empire any more. 'But more importantly, it shows young kids coming up that they can achieve and you can be successful.' View this post on Instagram A post shared by Hachette Children's Group (@hachettechildrens) On Instagram, publisher Hachette Children's Group said they were 'incredibly saddened', and added that he 'leaves behind a legacy of rich and powerful' stories. 'We are extremely proud at Hachette Children's Group to publish Alex's acclaimed and award-winning Crongton series,' the statement also said. 'He will be remembered for his astonishing creative talent, enormous generosity to other writers and his ability to bring joy to any room. 'We will miss him very much and our thoughts are with his family and friends at this difficult time.'
