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SHORTLISTED FOR THE WESTMINSTER BOOK AWARDS

‘I am in awe of the woman who grew from the child in this book … The pure character necessary to grow through this dark entangled forest of childhood is the stuff of legends. Bravissima’ LEMN SISSAY, author of My Name is Why

Eight Weeks is a deeply moving and inspiring memoir that tells the remarkable life story of Baroness Young of Hornsey, from her childhood in foster care, to becoming one of the first Black women in the House of Lords.

Lola Young has been an actress, an academic, an activist and campaigner for social justice, and a crossbench peer. But from the age of eight weeks to eighteen years, she was moved between foster care placements and children’s homes in North London. It would take many decades before she was able to begin the search for answers to the long-standing questions that would help her make sense of her childhood.

In Eight Weeks, through her care records, fragments of memory, and her imagination where parts of her story are missing, Lola assembles the pieces of her past into a portrait of a childhood in a system that often made her feel invisible and unwanted. Alongside glimpses into her life as a peer, activist, and campaigner it tells the powerful story of her determination to defy the odds.

Eight Weeks is a spirited, eye-opening and beautifully written account of being a child in care and a Black child in a white family and is a vital part of contemporary Black British history.

‘A remarkable account of rejection, resilience and resolve’ MICHELLE GAYLE
‘Beautiful and harrowing, deeply unsettling and profoundly life-affirming’ JOHN AKOMFRAH
‘Superb, moving’ HELENA KENNEDY LT KC
‘An inspiring story from an inspirational storyteller’ GARY YOUNGE

Publisher Review

Lola Young went into foster care at eight weeks old: few might have predicted she would go on to become one of the first Black women in the House of Lords. This memoir is the moving story of someone who is only now making sense of her childhood and journey that followed * inews, The best new books to read in November 2024 * As an account of growing up in care, Eight Weeks is unsentimental and extremely clear-sighted * The Independent * A remarkable book: at once beautiful and harrowing, deeply unsettling and profoundly life-affirming. It is, quite simply, the best memoir that I’ve read on 50s Britain * John Akomfrah * A remarkable account of rejection, resilience and resolve … It perfectly portrays the essential human need to belong * Michelle Gayle * I love Eight Weeks … Baroness Lola Young reveals how a child is constantly wronged by a system which was supposed to help … In Eight Weeks Lola befriends her childhood self. She holds her by the hand as they enter the storm of a system raging around her. I am in awe of the woman who grew from the child in this book … The pure character necessary to grow through this dark entangled forest of childhood is the stuff of legends. Bravissima Lola * Lemn Sissay, author of My Name is Why * A superb, moving memoir of a fraught childhood forging a great human spirit. Inspirational! * Helena Kennedy LT KC * Lola Young takes us on a remarkable journey, both personal and political, that few have travelled but all can relate to. An inspiring story from an inspirational storyteller. * Gary Younge * This is a remarkable story about a remarkable woman. An eight-week old baby effectively abandoned by her Nigerian parents, raised in foster care and a series of children’s homes, endures loss, loneliness, racism, trauma and depression to become a peer of the realm. It is a hopeful and uplifting story about resilience and self-reliance, simultaneously a memoir and a book about memory: some memories being vague and incomplete, others told in graphic, almost cinematic detail. We may be explained in some sense by our memories, but Baroness Lola Young has valiantly and brilliantly shown that we need not be defined by them. * Hugh Quarshie * From growing up in foster care in north London to becoming one of the first Black women to enter the House of Lords, Baroness Lola Young’s memoir is a fascinating account of a life spent questioning her complex past while working as an activist, academic and actor. An eye-opening read. * Stylist * ‘An inspirational and riveting story, Baroness Young’s quest to unravel the mystery of why she was placed in care as a baby is both moving and witty’ * The House Magazine *