Lipika Pelham worked in the BBC newsroom for over a decade, and has reported from the Middle East, North Africa and Asia. Having made several award-winning documentary films, she now writes and produces independent programmes for the BBC. Lipika is the author of 'Jerusalem on the Amstel', also published by Hurst, and 'The Unlikely Settler.'
'Pelham, a writer with a flair for capturing complex sensitivities, has produced a provocative, engaging history that doesn't balk at considering the fierce contemporary debate surrounding gender identity, or what happens when passing becomes trespassing, AKA cultural appropriation.' -- The Observer 'A fascinating and engrossing exploration of racial passing and fluid racial identity from an award-winning documentary filmmaker and journalist.' -- Cosmopolitan UK 'This remarkable book merges perceptive understanding of sociopolitical identity problems facing many who are disempowered and marginalised owing to skin-colour, sexuality, gender, caste, class or religion.' -- Morning Star 'Expertly navigating themes of identity, boundaries and belonging, Pelham combines moving storytelling with patient writing to create a truly transformative experience.' -- David Lammy MP, author of 'Tribes: How Our Need to Belong Can Make or Break Society' 'Thoroughly elevates the complex reality of day-to-day identity dynamics, tracing their rich historical origins and posing pertinent questions for the future.' -- Koa Beck, author of 'White Feminism' 'A profound and heartfelt meditation on the cost of self-effacement and the need to forge a new sense of self from the debris of our atavisms.' -- Aatish Taseer, author of 'The Twice-Born', 'The Temple-Goers' and 'Stranger to History' 'A gripping account of how a person can be liberated by taking on another identity, or indeed how their own existence exposes the artificial boundaries of otherness. With compassion, honesty, and a storyteller's eye for beauty in meaning, Pelham destigmatises and viscerally recreates these crossings to another shore.' -- Medina Tenour Whiteman, author of 'The Invisible Muslim'