British author Alex Wheatle, whose books include East of Acre Lane and the Crongton series, died March 16. He was 62. The Guardian reported that Wheatle "traced his interest in writing to his time in prison. After being arrested during the Brixton uprising of April 1981, Wheatle spent four months in prison, where he read CLR James, Charles Dickens, James Baldwin, Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, and John Steinbeck among other authors handed to him by his cellmate."
"Whatever I achieve in this old writing game is down to the conversion I experienced under Simeon in Wormwood Scrubs," he wrote in the Guardian in 2021.
His first novel, Brixton Rock (1999), is about a 16-year-old who has lived in a children's home all his life. Wheatle also wrote many novels for adults, including Island Songs and The Dirty South. His first YA novel, Liccle Bit, was longlisted for the Carnegie medal in 2016. A follow-up, Crongton Knights, won the 50th Guardian children's fiction prize the same year. Two more Crongton books, Straight Outta Crongton and In the Ends, were published in 2017 and 2023 respectively.
Wheatle was awarded an MBE for services to literature in 2008. His recent books include Home Boys, Home Girl, Cane Warriors, and Kemosha of the Caribbean. In 2023, he published his memoir Sufferah: Memoir of a Brixton Reggae Head.
Several of Wheatle's early books are based on his life in Brixton as a teenager and his time in social services' care. His early life was dramatized in an episode of Steve McQueen's BBC One anthology series Small Axe. Shortly before it aired, Wheatle told the Bookseller: "There are still people in children's homes, kids who don't know where they belong, they need inspiration. If they can see me and see I made it they might feel they can do the same. That means so much to me."
His agent, Kerry-Ann Bentley of KAB Literary, said: "Alex loved life and had a great zeal for it. Family, friendships and football were important to him, and he always found a way to fit those into his books. I'm devastated at the scope of this loss for his family and loved ones, all who knew and admired him. Working with a writer of Alex's caliber, who had integrity and grace, has been the highlight of my career."