Borrowed Body

I could have been born and raised in Africa. But my spirit was in too much of a rush to be reincarnated. At six weeks I was chucked out into the new year of 1965, which wasn't prepared to welcome an African baby, abandoned on a harsh English winter's day. So begins Pauline's spirited and moving story of her childhood and teenage years in and out of foster homes and back and forth to Dr. Barnardo's Village in Essex. Her Barnardo's family was ruled by an unlikely trio, Aunty Claire, a fervent Christian; her laconic husband, the German Jewish Uncle Boris; and Aunty Morag, the cook. And, of course, other kids orphaned or abandoned like Pauline. Woven into this account are Pauline's angel and spirit companions Sparky, Annabel and Snake who by turns help and hinder her to survive in the real world. The Barnardo's good times are shattered by the sudden visits of her mother, whom she calls Wunmi and with whom she goes to live in a London high-rise. Wunmi's method of refashioning Pauline into a dutiful African child is literally to knock the English out of her. She tries other ways to survive, sniffing glue and shoplifting, until the harsh realities of detention centres and juvenile courts make Pauline think again.