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Floella Benjamin was born in Trinidad, emigrating to the UK with her parents in the early 1960s , and settling in South London. She is most well known for her work on children’s television, as presenter of ‘Playschool’ and ‘Playaway’, but her repertoire is much wider. She has had a successful career in West End theatre and adult television drama; was critically acclaimed for her performance in the feature film ‘Black Joy’ (1977); and has worked on many radio programmes, including hosting her own current affairs programme on Radio London’s ‘Black Londoners’. Floella Benjamin has also written over twenty children’s books in addition to Coming to England. In 1987, Floella Benjamin set up her own T.V. production company producing children’s programmes including ‘Jamboree’ and ‘Hullabaloo’. In December 2000, Floella Benjamin was awarded an OBE for Services to Broadcasting.
Floella Benjamin has played a very active role in charitable work, especially concerning children, having been a Vice President of NCH Action for Children and a patron of the Home Farm Trust, the Sickle Cell Society, SPARKS, and the Independent Adoption Service. She has also been involved in promoting the Commonwealth through work for the Royal Commonwealth Society. She was a member of the Government’s Millennium Commission.

In 1996, Floella Benjamin said:

“In the 1960s, when I came to England I had some nasty experiences at school. School taught me that I wasn’t a person anymore, I was a colour. That had quite a drastic effect on me. I had to overcome a lot of unhappy experiences, which I did.”

In the ‘Afterword’ of Coming to England, Floella Benjamin is clear about her intentions in writing the book. She wanted:

“to give young people, both black and white, an insight into the circumstances that brought a whole generation of West Indians to Britain….to bring to light what many of them had to go through in order to make the difficult and sometimes painful transition to life in the fabled motherland, the ‘Land of Hope and Glory’.”


Teachers Notes on resources

Floella Benjamin’s website is
www.floellabenjamin.uk-site.co.uk
This contains much more detail about the range of her work and activities.

The article in Children’s Express recalls memories of school and particularly the influence of her dance teacher Peggy Spencer – who also contributes her memories. See www.childrens-express.org/dynamic/public

An account of her receiving the award of OBE can be found on
http:///news.bbc.co.uk (go to entertainment, or search for Floella Benjamin)

Additional materials that might be useful include a map to trace the journey. Other books that recall the experience of Caribbean migrants include

Marcia Hutchinson, The Journey, 1999, ABACUS, Huddersfield

Tony Sewell, Keep on Moving, The Windrush Legacy, 1998, Voice Enterprises, London

Vivienne Francis, With Hope in their Eyes, 1998, Nia, London

Teaching Ideas:

Floella Benjamin, COMING TO ENGLAND, Collins Cascades 2002/Puffin 1997 (originally published in a large copy by Pavilion 1995)

Coming to England is a recount of experiences told in first person – past tense, in common with other autobiographies. The story is told in chronological order, but includes an ‘Afterword’ that makes the author’s purpose explicit and can be read with the first chapter to discuss authorial intent

Floella Benjamin focuses on her childhood, describing and contrasting her life in both countries, as well as the journey between Trinidad and England. She explores painful memories of separation from her parents and the disillusion of finally coming to England, where the family found themselves both unwelcome and living in conditions that were worse than those they had left behind. There is a very good explication of the way Caribbean people felt a sense of loyalty to Britain that was then betrayed by the way they were treated on arrival (chapter 12).

The book contains descriptive passages that lend themselves to word work around the use of adjectives, adverbs, idiomatic phrases and so on to convey images and feelings.

NB page numbers refer to the Collins Cascades edition of this book

Chapter 1, ‘Life in Trinidad’ introduces Floella’s family and contains descriptions of her physical environment, food and routine activities. It reveals what was special about her family.

Possible teaching points:
Read the ‘afterword’ and chapter 1.Discuss the author’s intent (“to give young people, both black and white, an insight into the circumstances that brought a whole generation of West Indians to Britain ….to bring to life what many had to go through in order to make the difficult and sometimes painful transition…”) in writing this book.
Examine her memories of ‘the house we lived in’ and how the family unit was special. Collect examples of adjectives and adverbs that convey positive memories (e.g. lavishly, best).

Chapters 2-5 continue the exploration of life in Trinidad focussing on school, celebrations (including Carnival), weather and the importance of the church in community life.

Possible teaching points:
Read chapter 2, School Life. Make a chart showing the pattern of her school day. Compare the similarities/differences in school life here and there.
Look at the beginning of chapter 2, the description of being late for school. Collect examples of her use of idiomatic phrases & similes to describe her fear (feet heavy as lead weights; heart thumping like kettle drums). Ask children for other examples of idiomatic phrases & similes that describe fear.

Chapter 6-9 describes the emigration of her father and then her mother with her two youngest siblings. Floella and her other sister and two brothers stayed with godparents and were not well-treated. Fifteen months after her mother left, Floella set out on the journey to England. She describes her feelings of excitement, life at sea and arriving at Southampton.

Possible teaching points:
Read chapter 6 and 7. Note the swinging emotions – this is an adult remembering painful childhood experiences. Model write a letter from Floella to her mother in England describing her experiences and feelings.
Reinforce the use of adjectives/adverbs/similes to convey emotions.
Collect phrases and words which create the image of hustle and bustle at the port. Ask the children for other phrases/words which convey busy-ness.


Chapter 10-12 describes her first impressions after the train journey from Southampton to London, her first experience of being stared at and her intense disappointment at the dinginess of their new home.
These chapters also look at new patterns of life and beginning school in England, with memories of rejection and name-calling.

Possible teaching points:
Read chapter 10 and refer back to the previous school list, compare her experiences of school life in England & Trinidad. Read the chapter ‘Survival’ to help children understand why she didn’t expect the racial prejudice she met.
Collect examples of descriptive words and phrases that convey a disappointing environment (dingy building squatted, musty grey, dull beige).
Model write diary entry by Floella, describing her experiences and feelings about living in England.


Chapter 13-15 describe their first house and how her mother tried to help the children cope with continually being made to feel unwelcome. There is further exploration of how Caribbean migrants learned to survive, including an account of having to speak ‘the Queen’s English’ and do well at school.

Possible teaching points:
Read chapter 14, ‘Double Identity’, and 15,’Breaking down the barriers’. Discuss ‘the Queen’s English’ and how our perceptions of others can be shaped by their mode of speech.
List the ways Floella and her family coped with life in Britain.

The Afterword sums up the purposes of the book and places Floella’s personal experience within the larger context of Caribbean migration to England.