Benjamin Zephaniah grew up in Birmingham in the 1960s; his father was from Barbados and his mother from Jamaica. He got very little education because he was dyslexic. He truanted, was deemed uncontrollable, 'a born failure', and drifted into crime. After serving sentences in various different penal institutions he decided to break the pattern and go to London, where he started to perform his own 'rap' poetry. In 1989 he was proposed as candidate for nomination as the Oxford Professor of Poetry, and 10 years later was talked of as a potential Poet Laureate. He has published 6 books of poetry for children and adults, and also writes novels and plays.
"I was the area champion at Bible knowledge, I could quote them any of the main bits of it, and I got highly praised, I was the church's star kid in the big conventions where the churches all got together. 'Listen to this kid preach', they'd say. I was really loved, anything I wanted I had. But the moment I started asking questions, I was a devil."
"I feel - not that I have a spirit, that I am a spirit. I'm a spirit connected to a body, not the other way round."