Sugar and Slate  

Arts Council of Wales Book of the Year, 2003

A mixed-race young woman, the daughter of a white Welsh-speaking mother and black father from Guyana, grows up in a small town on the coast of north Wales. From there she travels to Africa, the Caribbean and finally back to Wales. What begins as a journey becomes a fascinating confrontation with herself and with the idea of Wales and Welshness.

Sugar and Slate is a remarkable personal memoir that speaks to the wider experience of mixed-race Britons, characterised by its constant pull of to-ing and fro-ing, movement and dislocation, going away and coming back with always a sense of being 'half home'. It is a story of Welshness and a story of Wales but above all a story for those of us who look over our shoulder across the sea to some other place.

It is Williams's Welshness that makes the examination of her mixed race identity distinctive, but it is the humour, candour and facility of her style that make it exceptional. Hers is an engaging and perceptive voice describing an engrossing and particular personal story. Gary Younge, The Guardian.

Sugar and Slate is currently unavailable in print, however digital editions can be purchased here Please note - the digital edition can be read on your phone, tablet or computer, no Kindle required.