Clive Myrie: ‘Mass shootings undermined my love for the US’

In a wide-ranging discussion in front of a packed audience at Hay, Myrie also discussed racism, multiculturism, and his career in journalism.

He explained that his parents came over from Jamaica as part of the Windrush generation and settled in Bolton, where his Uncle Clive was already living.

Myrie said his dad “never acclimatised” but they still “managed to make lemonades out of lemons”.

His father worked in a car battery factory, while his mother, a trained teacher in Jamaica, became a seamstress for Mary Quant.

Their hard work paid off and they were able to buy the house next door as well as their own.

“The motherland came calling: ‘Help us rebuild (Britain post-war),’” Myrie explained.

“What they got in return was a lot of racism and a lot of pain.”