Malorie Blackman

And the train incident was the first time I'd travelled first class and I saved up and I thought, well, I'm going to treat myself, travel first class.

And then the ticket inspector accused me of stealing the ticket.

And he said, well, where'd you get this ticket from?

And blah, blah.

And so, and it was humiliating because of course everyone in the train carriage was looking at me and I thought I bought this ticket, but he kind of refused to believe me.

So the whole thing was mortifying.

And that was sort of, that was my late teens, early 20s.

And so, you know, that was, that sort of stuck with me.

And the history teacher is, again, a conversation I had with my history teacher at school when I said to her, why do you never talk about black scientists and achievers and inventors?

And she said, because there aren't any, Laurie.

And she said it was such a smug grin on her face.

And I thought, and I had no comeback because I'd never been taught about any.

And it was only when I reached my 20s and I could learn for myself.

And I found a bookshop, a black bookshop in Islington in London.

And that's where, apart from my mortgage, that's where my money went in, buying books.

And it was sort of like buying all the books in this bookshop and it's sort of fiction and nonfiction and just devouring them and learning about black scientists and pioneers.

And I thought there are so many, but of course she hadn't been taught any.

So she thought there weren't any.

And that's this sort of myth that she was perpetuating as she taught.

And again, it was kind of like, cause there aren't any Laurie and it was sort of like, again, it was so humiliating and I thought there must be some.