Lemn Sissay: ‘A childhood in care almost broke me – I needed to shine a light on it’

The writer has finally won redress from Wigan council for his mistreatment as a child. Now he hopes his story will inspire others

Lemn Sissay has spent the past two years seeking redress from Wigan council for his childhood in care. “I’ve heard some people have committed suicide going through the legal process and I can understand how it could happen. I didn’t know it would be so violently intrusive into who I am. You’re sailing so close to the storm. You’re playing with a breakdown.”

Earlier this month, two years after the award-winning poet, playwright and broadcaster made his compensation claim, and in a last-minute attempt to avoid an expensive court case, the council and its insurer finally agreed to award Sissay a six-figure sum, along with a formal apology. “You ask for redress because of your own sense of self worth. It wasn’t good enough for me as an artist to go banging on about my story without getting the institution that was my parent to recognise it on its own terms.”

In the past, reading my files from social services made me feel like a rat in a lab. Now I feel like a lion.

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from Children | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2FnINZX