In Thursday's Child, readers bear witness to the journey of Britain's most prolific grassroots social historian, as it takes him through the back alleys of Peckham and Camberwell as a gay British youth in 1960s and 70s and beyond.

We enter the mind of a curious and often misunderstood child whose fidelity to family steers him through the turbulent days of teachers-for-bullies, but also anchors his future career as a veritable aesthete, activist, and champion of the people, cemented by previous titles like his much acclaimed Black Poppies: Britain Black Community and The Great War.

Readers visit the rubble of World War II in West London in the spectacular reminiscences of Aunt Esther, Stephen's adopted Guyanese-British relative and, in a next breath, are catapulted to the trying if not relatable moments of professional and personal rejection, as a budding film critic and staunch activist for the MET police; to the more elusive and opaque kind: when a love between two dissipates nearly as soon as its begun.

This is a vivid and deeply personal social history - an intimate journey through family, war, identity, and the making of a pioneering figure of British public life. And ultimately, an opportunity for readers to bring one of this country's most dedicated historians into the spotlight for the first time.



Stephen Bourne