The overarching theme of this book and Pauline's life is her search for identity and belonging. Born to a 17 year-old white British teenager and Nigerian engineering student, she was placed in an orphanage and then adopted into a working-class white family (it turned out that some of her relatives held racist views), and was the only black child in her school (in a larger society that was, how shall I put this, resistant to the realization that England was becoming a multicultural society). Add all this to the fact that she was one of the few female musicians in the 2 Tone revolution...
As someone who was given up for adoption at birth, her book and statement below have great resonance:
"I know [this] probably sounds a little bit like a cliche, but I feel that it's very, very important for every individual on this planet to know where they came from and who they came from," she says. "It just gives you a sense of belonging, and I think that sense of belonging is more profound than probably any of us give it credit for."
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