Episode 1

Available for over a year

Poet, writer, essayist, and activist Maya Angelou's extraordinary account of Afro-American life in post-war US. It's 1945 in San Francisco. Aged 17, and a single mother, Maya falls in love. Dramatised in five parts by Patricia Cumper. Narrator (Older Maya) ...... Adjoa Andoh Maya ...... Pippa Bennett-Warner Curly ...... Sope Dirisu Bailey ...... Paapa Essiedu Uncle Charley ...... Anthony Ofoegbu The books that make up the life and times of Maya Angelou are some of the best, most beautiful and haunting pieces of autobiography written. They run the gamut from life affirming to tragedy and back again with a tone that is a joyous, direct and searingly honest, and are an extraordinary portrait of 20th-century black America. Director: Pauline Harris First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2018.