Benjamin Zephaniah

she had once been used in a hair commercial because of her Mediterranean looks and her long black hair.

about it. Think yourself lucky, lad, I got bigger fish to catch than you tonight. Let me tell ya something, if you ever come my way again I’ll nick ya, even if I have to nick ya for spitting. I’ll lock you up quick, geezer, now move!’

Martin’s face was expressionless. He wasn’t frightened, in fact he was tempted to laugh to show the other two how in control he was, but he didn’t want to upset the officer too much. Matthew looked worried and Mark looked impressed. At this point a small group of onlookers had began to gather and a higher-ranking police officer joined his colleague and asked if there was any trouble.

‘No, Sarge, just a kid messing around.’

Matthew grabbed Martin by the wrist and pulled him away. ‘Let’s go.’

Turner and his mates –

three also had a reputation for chasing girls.

desperate to try and be like Martin

When I hear politicians saying that we are being ‘flooded’ by refugees, I always remind myself that each ‘refugee’ is a person, a person who for some reason has left everything they know and love to find safety in a strange and sometimes hostile country. I wrote Refugee Boy because I realised that every day I was meeting refugees, and each one of them had a unique and usually terrifying story to tell.

Amhara tribe of Ethiopia.

Are you Ethiopian or Eritrean? Tell us, we want to know.’

‘You are a traitor.’

‘And she is the enemy.’