A Thousand Threads: A Memoir

"I don’t know about you, but I remember watching Neneh Cherry doing ‘Buffalo Stance’ on Top of the Pops while pregnant and thinking she was so cool. She’s a well known singer, but this is her first book. It’s the story of her life, but it’s so much more than that. It’s such a beautiful meditation on so many things, on family, on motherhood, on belonging, on friendship and love, but also some really difficult moments. She talks about a sexual assault, about her experiences of racism. She has dealt with a lot of things in her life, and yet somehow it comes together in this beautiful elegy. We were, all of us, completely captured by it. It’s complex in terms of the themes she talks about, but never feels that way. And there is a huge amount of warmth and honesty and integrity in the way she writes. It’s also a great look at the sweep of jazz music, which is something I wasn’t expecting, because that is the background to her life—through her father, but also her stepfather. It’s a remarkable debut, but also the story of a remarkable life. I don’t think it’s a celebrity memoir. I mean, she is a celebrity. But she’s also an excellent writer. That’s why she is on the shortlist, for the strength of her writing. She absolutely earns her place, and I really hope that she will go on to write more."