A moving, powerful autobiography from an inspirational woman, one of the Windrush generation who became a member of the House of Lords.
Emigrating from Trinidad to the United Kingdom as a young girl, Floella Benjamin would eventually become a British household name. She has received some of the highest accolades, including a BAFTA Special Lifetime Achievement Award and a Damehood, and became a Peer in the House of Lords.
Born in Trinidad, she came to England in 1960 with her family as part of the Windrush generation. She was shocked to find a cold and unwelcoming Britain, her first and by no means her last experience of racism. Benjamin quickly realized that if she was going to survive, she had to learn how to live in two cultures. Forced to leave school at sixteen, she resolved to become Britain's first Black woman bank manager, but a successful audition for a national musical put her on the path to a decades-spanning career in entertainment.
From Play School to pantomime, television documentaries and singing with orchestras all over the world, Floella's entertainment work was only one string to her bow. Over the last thirty years, she has dedicated herself to charitable causes, lobbying prime ministers on behalf of children, building her Touching Success foundation, and advocating for more representation across the media.
Benjamin also set up her own television company, was the Chancellor of the University of Exeter for a decade, and ran ten London Marathons for Barnardos. A natural storyteller, What Are You Doing Here is her incredibly moving and honest account of her remarkable life and her refusal to be defined by others.
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Floella Benjamin was born in Trinidad in 1949, and came to England in 1960 as part of the Windrush generation. She has enjoyed a successful career as a children's presenter, best known for the iconic BBC TV programmes Play School and Play Away, and has also worked as an actress, writer, producer, working peer, and an active advocate for the welfare and education of children. Her broadcasting work has been recognized with a Special Lifetime Achievement BAFTA and an OBE. She was appointed a Baroness in the House of Lords in 2010 and a Dame in the 2020 New Year Honours list, and is the Chair of the Windrush Commemoration Committee.
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