Lemn Sissay

Lemn Sissay MBE (born 21 May 1967) is a British author and broadcaster.

Life and work

Early years

Sissay's mother arrived in England from Ethiopia in 1966 Pregnant at the time, she was sent from Bracknell to Lancashire to give birth. Sissay was born in Billinge Hospital, near Wigan, Lancashire in 1967. Norman Goldthorpe, a social worker assigned to his mother by Wigan Social Services, found foster parents for Sissay while his mother returned to Bracknell to finish her studies. Goldthorpe named Sissay 'Norman' and gave Sissay to foster parents, telling them to treat it as an adoption. The events are depicted in the play Something Dark and in BBC documentary Internal flight. His strongly religious foster parents wanted to name him Mark after the Christian evangelist Mark and give him their surname, Greenwood.

When Sissay was 12 years old, after his foster parents had had three children of their own, they placed him into a children's home and said neither they nor any of their family would contact him again.