When I Passed the Statue of Liberty I Became Black

"Yes, the Harry Edward memoir is probably the most unusual book that’s ever made the shortlist of the award in its entire history. It’s a lost memoir. He tried to get it published in the 1970s, but publishers said it wasn’t interesting enough. It’s unbelievable, anyone would think that. What you do is you accompany him through the great landmarks of history. Wherever things are happening, he turns up. It’s absolutely remarkable. Then, in the middle of it all, you’ve got him going to America, which is why it’s called When I Passed the Statue of Liberty I Became Black . He’s self-educated, very well-read, very forward-thinking, very liberal. And yet he explains the racism of going to America and just being seen as black, and therefore all you can do is wash the dishes in a restaurant. Never mind all the qualifications you’ve got. But he doesn’t write it in a bitter way at all. It’s more like, ‘Oh well, this is another little hurdle I have to get over.’ He just keeps pushing and pushing to make sure he impacts the world as much as he can. He just seems to be the most kind, lovely person that emerges from these pages, with so much to offer. I can’t list for you all the things he gets involved in. He’s just a bundle of energy. His Olympic journey is a tiny part of his bigger picture. It’s almost like competing at the Olympic Games was just one in a list of 150 things that he did in his life. It did go slightly wrong. It does sound like he probably should have won gold rather than bronze, but you can never know for sure why these things turn out the way they do. He’s a history maker in terms of the Olympics, but for him it’s just another chapter in the many chapters of a remarkable life. We’re not reading the memoir in its pure form. It has been edited with a bit of digging around in the history with things woven in to add context. But it is a memoir and who doesn’t like a lost memoir? It reads a bit like an old-fashioned Pathé newsreel. It’s very proper and he’s relentlessly upbeat. I find that quite delightful, that style. There’s not too much introspection. But you could argue it sounds like a list of your life, as opposed to going deep into it and adding texture. That’s possibly the reason it didn’t get published in the 70s. But because time has now passed, this odd style actually adds to the sense of, ‘This is a remarkable memoir by a remarkable man.’ It’s a firsthand account of what it felt like to have a whole nation judge you by the colour of your skin—when that hasn’t been the predominant way you’ve been treated up until that point. It’s quite a rare insight, isn’t it? Most people are born into their circumstances and stay within them and are constrained by them. But Harry Edward did things back to front. He was a success, and then suddenly he was washing dishes."