Trims & Talk – Part One: Where We Come From

Описание: This episode is about beginnings—spoken quietly, honestly, without performance.


In Part One of this two-part conversation, I sit with my co-host, Donald McLean, and we do what we have always done best on Trims & Talk: we lay foundations. We talk about where we come from, how we were raised, and how history—personal and collective—shapes the way we see the world.


The conversation opens in the everyday rhythms of life: Christmas plans, children, grandchildren, moving house, and the quiet responsibilities that mark parenthood. From there, it widens into something deeper. Donald reflects on growing up in Nottingham as a child of the Windrush generation—born here, formed here, and rooted in Britain with a certainty that needs no explanation. I reflect on my own journey—from Zimbabwe to the UK—arriving as a young economic migrant, learning what it means to call more than one place “home.”


We talk about belonging and unbelonging. About being called “English” in Jamaica. About being labelled “Khiwa” back home. About how identity is negotiated not in theory, but in lived moments. We speak about books—how reading became a bridge to the world when television and radio were absent. We remember school libraries, teachers, curiosity, and the quiet violence of having your reality corrected in red ink because it did not fit someone else’s knowledge.


This episode is also about history—who tells it, who sanitises it, and who is left out. We discuss why ordinary lives matter just as much as kings and battles. Why curiosity is essential. Why shielding children from uncomfortable truths robs them of understanding—and why forgetting history ensures its repetition.


Part One is not about conclusions. It is about context.
About listening.
About making space for complexity.


This is the ground on which the rest of the conversation stands.