About Alex Wheatle
Alex Alphonso Wheatle MBE (3 January 1963 – 16 March 2025) was a British novelist. He was brought up in a children's care home from the age of two, his education subsequently suffering from numerous suspensions and expulsions from school. His connection with the written word was bolstered during a prison sentence he was serving after the 1981 Brixton riot in London, when his older Rastafarian cellmate introduced him to the writings of many impactful writers, as well as engaging him in discussions about African history. Wheatle went on to author many books, beginning with his 1999 debut novel Brixton Rock. In the 2008 Birthday Honours, Wheatle was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to literature. Other recognition and awards he won included the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. Wheatle's life story features in Steve McQueen's 2020 historical drama film Alex Wheatle, part of the television miniseries Small Axe, about the West Indian community in the UK during the 1970s and 1980s. == Life and career == Born on 3 January 1963 in London, to Jamaican parents, Wheatle spent much of his childhood in the Shirley Oaks Children's Home in Croydon. As he much later recalled: "Although my education had stalled, with numerous suspensions and three expulsions, I had always had the ability to read well. When I was five, I started to read the comics and magazines that were sometimes discarded on my dormitory floor.
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