The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho

The rhythmic rolling of the ship, accompanied by the groans of hundreds of men who cannot speak or understand each other’s languages. Divide and rule starts early in the seasoning process. That shameless word for the conditioning for a life of slavery, that the white and black traders along this treacherous coast give to the slave apprenticeship. A

If you adopt the rule of writing every evening your remarks on the past day, it will be a kind of friendly tête-a-tête between you and yourself, wherein you may sometimes happily become your own Monitor; and hereafter those little notes will afford you a rich fund, whenever you shall be inclined to retrace past times and places. CHARLES IGNATIUS SA

I was once timid about my place here in the UK, but researching Sancho’s story for the last twenty years – and more – has given me a deep sense of belonging, of a shared history with a nation that sometimes ignores, sometimes rejects, my people’s right to an equal role in its storytelling.

used the very words of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra to express my dismay: ‘ “Did not I tell your worship, to mind what you were about for they were only windmills? And no one could have made any mistake about it but one who had something of the same kind in his head.” ’

I want to tell a story by the fireside that will enlighten, but more essentially, delight you. I hope you smile, laugh, rage and cry. And in those sentiments assure yourself that whatever the truth of our origins and place in the world, we can all agree that no one should be denied their freedom to belong where they were raised.