Our police problems came from the fact that we were from the housing estate, second class citizens and we'd get a go along rather than being charged, must have saved them doing extra office work. An expert at giving a second life to cherished items, Jay's positivity, pragmatism and kindness shine through these pages and show that with care and love, anything can be mended. The honesty of the book makes it very moving especially as Jay does his best but struggles to find his direction in life, his conditioning within a racist society almost takes him down routes to disaster he manages to pull himself back from the brink and is fortunate to have caring friends around him to help. Daughter Zola is now 15, and Jay wants to read her a story before she reaches adulthood on her next birthday. Working with disengaged and disadvantaged young people, Jay was able to mentor and support thousands of individuals over the years to realize their full potential.

Making It: How Love, Kindness and Community Helped Me Repair

I admit to being a trifle skeptical about the content, I suspect that an autobiography doesn't have to be quite as strict with the truth as a fully-cited biography does. An expert at giving a second life to cherished items, Jay’s positivity, pragmatism and kindness shine through these pages and show that with care and love, anything can be mended. Possible I'm being harsh but Jay has littered his reminiscences with excuses without properly facing his own responsibility. I felt as if I should be expressing much greater admiration for what he has achieved yet I am unable to do so and am equally unable to explain why.Despite being humorous at times and showing a lot of Jay’s cheeky personality, this book isn’t a rose-tinted view of the world by any means - Jay addresses the ongoing racism issues in society, and he is brutally honest about his own life experiences with dyslexia. Jay also meets school pupils and adults who struggle with reading and writing, as he discovers the human stories behind the nation’s literacy statistics. Blades was born in Brent, North London [7] and raised in Hackney, East London with his mother and maternal half-brother. He gained a degree in Criminology and Philosophy at Buckingham University in his thirties before finding his true vocation in restoration.

Making It: How Love, Kindness and Community Helped Me R…

She ran her hands over them and understood immediately what teachers had been trying to tell her for 40 years. What impressed me most was that Jay Blades doesn’t spare himself from an intense, unforgiving spotlight that sometimes belies the jovial cheeky chap we know from his television programmes. This is full of humour and showing a lot of Jay’s cheeky personality, he is also brutally honest about his dyslexia, his childhood, he is very open about his past including how he hasn’t always treating women the way he should when he was younger. He also talks very openly about his experiences with racism, violence, police brutality, toxic masculinity and generational trauma. Hearst UK is the trading name of the National Magazine Company Ltd, 30 Panton Street, Leicester Square, London, SW1Y 4AJ.Her brain resisted all attempts to unlock the mystery for her, until the teacher realised the student was a kinaesthetic learner and had wooden letters made for her. Blades is now only involved in the third one, but more distantly as his TV work increases and takes up more of his time). Words squiggle around on the page and his brain tries to guess what they are as they slip away from him. They had met years previously when Blades ran a youth club and choir which Pinnock, then 14 years old, joined. We had our hardships, and there were times that we didn't have a lot of food and didn't have a lot of money.

Jay Blades Jay Blades

It would seem from the book that he has done some amazing work with boys on whom most people have given up, helping them to acquire skills and crafts that should enable them to earn a living and avoid a life of crime. That said, as he states in the book, " You can't live your kids' lives for them", he's done what he can, with who he is and even if he contributed to some of the problems, at least he's still trying to do something about contributing to the solution as well. The more the reader reads, the more they comprehend what it means to be a warm, intelligent, black man simply trying to do his best. Making It is an inspirational memoir about beating the odds and turning things around even when it all seems hopeless.

Even though I know the author is now a successful celebrity, I frequently felt tense as I read, wondering how he was going to overcome the latest obstacle life was throwing his way.