This doesn't mean that I expect you to suspend common sense, far from it, but just to embrace the possibilities of an alternative version to history and therefore the present that is created by the mainstream media and the people that control them. Tom Tolkien is an experienced teacher and educational consultant who taught for 20 years in primary and secondary schools, including Woodleigh School in North Yorkshire, where he was Head of English and ran a 4000 book prep school library for pupils aged 3-13. Hotjar sets this cookie to know whether a user is included in the data sampling defined by the site's pageview limit. It is important that we recognise our history, seek reconciliation and understanding, that we might move forward positively, compassionately and with equal opportunity.

It pulsates with urgent relevance to Britain’s reflection of its past and its purpose in moving forward. The line that really sticks with me from Jeffery’s intro is: “Music can carry the stories of history like a message in a bottle. Nothing helps us to understand what happened to the teenager, nor to any of the many, many other victims of racist violence and abuse. The _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report. Boakye knows his audience – what he has learned working as a teacher comes through loud and clear – and provides a series of snapshots that mostly take as long to read as to listen to the song on which they focus.Linton Kwesi Johnson stares wearily but with a sharpness and clarity from within a confined space that evokes the jail of his ‘letter’; Smiley Culture grins cheekily from a spray-haze, lending an ethereal tone to his tragic part in the story; Steven Lawrence’s body lacks an outline – only his face is clearly defined, a ‘halo’ of tears setting his features in relief. The use of songs to mark the chronology adds to the power of the narrative, with the story of each artist told alongside the over-arching themes. This is accompanied by illustrations at the beginning of each chapter, drawn by the talented Ngadi Smart.

Although this book is aimed at secondary aged children, teachers will want to check school policies. Now, with a similar virtuosity, Jeffrey Boakye has given us another dimension to that same story, his own Musical Truth and, speaking as a musician myself, it is without a doubt the best non-fiction book about music I’ve ever read.You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.

And Other Big Questions; Musical Truth, Musical World, I Heard What You Said, and Kofi and the Rap Battle Summer. If you've read books in this genre before such as any written by David Icke then you will feel at home with the subject matter presented to you. From Palaeolithic cave paintings to contemporary installations, Wilson deftly guides us through this world of symbols, showcasing their enduring ability to express power, hope, fear and faith, and to create and communicate identities, uniting – or dividing – the people that made them. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. Jeffrey Boakye has created a truly unique and delightful book which he has paired with a matching playlist on Spotify meaning you can listen to the songs he details whilst reading about the context at the same time.Diego Velazquez (1599-1660) was one of the towering figures of western painting and Baroque art, a technical master renowned for his focus on realism and startling veracity. As such, Musical Truth is thought-provoking and insightful, focussing on the issues that have been highlighted increasingly since the death of George Floyd. Very well put together with clear print which is easy to read (I struggle with very small print and large blocks of text but this is perfect.