Alex Wheatle

{{Infobox writer

| image =

| image_size =

| name = Alex Wheatle

| honorific_suffix = MBE

| caption =

| birth_name = Alex Alphonso Wheatle

| birth_date = {{birth date|1963|01|03|df=y}}

| birth_place = London, England

| death_date = {{death date and age|2025|03|16|1963|01|03|df=y}}

| death_place =

| alma_mater = Shirley Oaks Children's Home

| pseudonym = The Brixton Bard

| occupation = Novelist

| movement = Black British literature

| spouse =

| children = 3

| education =

| language = English

| notable_works = Brixton Rock (1999)
Crongton Knights (2016)
Cane Warriors (2020)

| awards = Guardian Children's Fiction Prize

| website = {{URL|alexwheatle.com}}

}}

Alex Alphonso Wheatle MBE (3 January 1963 – 16 March 2025) was a British novelist, who was sentenced to a term of imprisonment after the 1981 Brixton riot in London.{{cite news | last1 = Wheatle | first1 = Alex | title = I felt so alone and rejected – until my prison cellmate taught me about belonging | date = 29 December 2021 | newspaper = The Guardian | location = London, United Kingdom | issn = 0261-3077 | url = https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/dec/29/i-felt-so-alone-and-rejected-until-my-prison-cellmate-taught-me-about-belonging | access-date = 2021-12-29}}

Life and career

Born on 3 January 1963 in London,{{cite web|access-date=2020-12-08|title=About|url=https://www.alexwheatle.com|website=alexwheatle.com}}{{cite web|url=https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/alex-wheatle|title=Alex Wheatle|website=British Council|access-date=7 December 2020}} to Jamaican parents,{{Cite web |title=Alex Wheatle |url=http://www.thesusijnagency.com/AlexWheatle.htm |website=The Susijn Agency}} Wheatle spent much of his childhood in a Shirley Oaks Children's Home in Croydon.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/mar/20/alex-wheatle-novelist-and-brixton-bard-dies-aged-62|title=Alex Wheatle, novelist and 'Brixton Bard', dies aged 62|newspaper=The Guardian|first=Ella|last=Creamer|date=20 March 2025|access-date=21 March 2025}} At the age of 16, he was a founding member of the Crucial Rocker soundsystem; his DJ name was Yardman Irie. He wrote lyrics about everyday life in Brixton, south London. By 1980, Wheatle was living in a social services hostel in Brixton, and he participated{{clarify|date=December 2020}} in the 1981 Brixton riots and their aftermath. While serving his resulting sentence,{{clarify|date=December 2020}} he read authors such as Chester Himes, Richard Wright, C. L. R. James and John Steinbeck. Wheatle's cellmate, a Rastafari, was the one who encouraged Wheatle to start reading books and care about his education.{{cite news |last= Khaleeli |first= Homa |title= Alex Wheatle: 'I felt like the token black writer who talks about ghetto stuff' |url= https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/nov/18/alex-wheatle-interview-guardian-childrens-fiction-prize-crongton-knights| date= 19 November 2016 |newspaper= The Guardian (Review section)|location=London| page= 15|access-date=23 November 2016 }} He featured aspects of his life in his books, such as East of Acre Lane characters Yardman Irie and Jah Nelson.

Wheatle spoke about the Brixton riots, most prominently in the 2006 BBC programme Battle for Brixton.{{Cite web |date=10 April 2008 |title=Opposite sides of Brixton's front line |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4857456.stm |website=Broadcast on BBC Two |publisher=BBC News}} His early books are based on his life in Brixton as a teenager and his time in social services' care.{{Cite web |title=Alex Wheatle |url=http://www.myvillage.com/london/articles/20679-alex-wheatle/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120914014501/http://www.myvillage.com/london/articles/20679-alex-wheatle/ |archive-date=14 September 2012 |publisher=Interview with Myvillage}}

He received the London Arts Board New Writers Award in 1999 for his debut novel Brixton Rock,{{Cite web |title=Alex Wheatle - Biography |url=http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth5181C8791187f1FF07sgw2124D73 |website=British Council, Contemporary Writers}} which was later adapted for the stage and performed at the Young Vic in July 2010.{{Cite web |title=Brixton Rock |url=http://www.talawa.com/news/news.php?nid=117 |access-date=12 August 2010 |website=Talawa Theatre Company}}{{dead link|date=September 2023}}

He wrote and performed Uprising, a one-man play based on his own life at Tara Arts Studios, Wandsworth, London. In 2011, he took Uprising on tour and performed it at the Writing On The Wall Festival, Liverpool, the Oxford Playhouse, the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury, the Ilkley Playhouse and the Albany Theatre, Deptford.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}} The play re-toured theatres and literature festivals in 2012, marking the 50th year of Jamaican Independence.{{cite web|url=https://www.tara-arts.com/whats-on/uprising-2011-2012|title=Touring Literature Festivals & Theatres in 2012 marking the 50th year of Jamaican Independence|publisher=Uprising (2011 & 2012)|access-date=9 December 2020}}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

Wheatle lived in London. He was a member of English PEN, and he visited various institutions facilitating creative writing classes and making speeches. He also narrated an audio guide to the streets of Brixton.{{cite web|url=https://www.guidigo.com/Tour/United%20Kingdom/London/London--Brixton-with-Novelist-Alex-Wheatle/8sVd1Z6Em7s?lg=en|title=London – Brixton with Novelist Alex Wheatle|website=GuidiGo|access-date=9 December 2020}}

Wheatle died from prostate cancer on 16 March 2025, at the age of 62.{{cite magazine|url=https://www.thebookseller.com/news/beloved-author-alex-wheatle-mbe-dies-aged-62

|title='Beloved' author Alex Wheatle MBE dies aged 62|first=Caroline|last=Carpenter|magazine=The Bookseller|date=20 March 2025|access-date=20 March 2025}}

Awards and honours

In the 2008 Birthday Honours, Wheatle was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to literature.United Kingdom list: {{London Gazette |issue=58729 |date=14 June 2008 |pages=24 |supp=1}}

His young-adult novel Liccle Bit was longlisted for the Carnegie Medal in 2016.

His 2016 book Crongton Knights won the 50th Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. S. F. Said, one of the judging panel, said of the book: "Wheatle's writing is poetic, rhythmic and unique, remaking the English language with tremendous verve. Though Crongton is his invention, it resonates with many urban situations, not only in Britain but around the world. Crongton Knights is a major novel from a major voice in British children's literature."{{cite news| first= Claire| last= Armitstead|author-link=Claire Armitstead| url= https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/nov/17/alex-wheatle-wins-2016-guardian-childrens-fiction-prize| title= Alex Wheatle wins 2016 Guardian children's fiction prize| newspaper= The Guardian| date= 17 November 2016| access-date= 23 November 2016 }}{{Cite web |date=18 November 2016 |title=Wheatle wins Guardian Children's Fiction Prize |url=http://www.thebookseller.com/news/wheatle-wins-guardian-childrens-fiction-prize-434376 |website=The Bookseller|first=Lisa|last=Campbell}} A 10-part TV adaptation of the Crongton books aired on BBC Three in March 2025.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/mediapack/crongton|title=Get to know the friends navigating life on the chaotic and vibrant Crongton estate – a new comedy drama coming to BBC iPlayer and BBC Three|website=BBC Media Centre|date=12 March 2025|access-date=20 March 2025}}

Wheatle's life story features in Alex Wheatle, the fourth film in Small Axe, a 2020 anthology of five films by Steve McQueen about the West Indian community in the UK during the 1970s and 1980s. Alex Wheatle depicts Wheatle's life up to and just after the Brixton uprising.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/dec/05/alex-wheatle-i-have-nightmarish-moments-where-my-past-comes-back-and-hits-me|title=Alex Wheatle: 'I have nightmarish moments where my past comes back and hits me'|first=Jimi|last=Famurewa|newspaper=The Guardian|date=5 December 2020}}{{cite web|url=https://www.filmaffinity.com/us/film434729.html#:~:text=The%20series%20explores%20five%20stories,to%20prison%20following%20the%20Brixton|title=Small Axe: Alex Wheatle (TV)|website=FilmAffinity|access-date=22 November 2020}}{{cite news|url=https://www.ft.com/content/9975106b-1c7b-4384-9dc6-b354fd3a28b8|title=Small Axe: Alex Wheatle — a hymn to south London's West Indian links|first=Danny|last=Leigh|newspaper=Financial Times|date=2 December 2020}}

In March 2024 the Arbeitskreis für Jugendliteratur, the German national section of IBBY, nominated Cane Warriors in the category Jugendbuch for the 2024 Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis.