E. R. Braithwaite – författare

**A BBC BETWEEN THE COVERS BIG JUBILEE READ PICK**'A milestone in the campaign for racial equality' GuardianIn 1945, Rick Braithwaite, a smart, highly educated ex-RAF pilot, looks for a job in British engineering. He is deeply shocked to realise that, as a black man from British Guiana, no one will employ him because of the colour of his skin. In desperation he turns to teaching, taking a job in a tough East End school, and left to govern a class of unruly teenagers. With no experience or guidance, Braithwaite attempts to instil discipline, confound prejudice and ultimately, to teach.'Moving and inspiring' New York TimesWITH AN INTRODUCTION BY CARYL PHILLIPS

An uplifting story of the triumph of love, inspiration and hope against all odds, laced with the song and dance of austere 1940s Britain. Ricky Braithwaite, an ex-RAF fighter pilot and Cambridge graduate, arrives in London in 1948. Despite his First Class degree in electronic engineering he is turned down for job after job in his chosen profession and discovers the reality of life as a black man in post-war England. Taking the only job he can get, Ricky begins his first teaching post, in a tough but progressive East End school.Supported by an enlightened headmaster, the determined teacher turns teenage rebelliousness into self-respect, contempt into consideration and hate into love, and on the way, Ricky himself learns that he has more in common with his students than he had realised.Ayub Khan Din's play To Sir, With Love is based on E.R. Braithwaite's 1959 autobiographical novel of the same name. The play was first performed at Royal & Derngate, Northampton, in September 2013, and subsequently toured the UK.