‘Like the best memoirs, this one is written with novelistic and poetic flair. Red Dust Road is a fantastic, probing and heart-warming read’ – Independent

'One of Scotland's most celebrated living writers' – Spectator

From one of our best-loved poets and former Makar of Scotland, Red Dust Road is a heart-stopping story of parents and siblings, friends and strangers, belonging and beliefs, biology and destiny.

From the moment when, as a little girl, she realizes that her skin is a different colour from that of her beloved mum and dad, to the tracing and finding of her birth parents, her Highland mother and Nigerian father, Jackie Kay’s journey in Red Dust Road is one of unexpected twists, turns and deep emotions.

In a book remarkable for its warmth and candour, Kay discovers that inheritance is about much more than genes: that we are shaped by songs as much as by cells, and that what triumphs, ultimately, is love.

Part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the best of modern literature.

Prizes

Winner of Scottish Book Awards Book of the Year 2011 (UK),Short-listed for Scottish Book Awards Non-fiction Award 2011 (UK),Short-listed for National Book Awards Biography of the Year 2011 (UK)

A clear-eyed, witty and unsentimental account of the push and pull between nature and nurture. Happiness shines through * Sunday Times *
Wonderful, humane . . . This is a book with resolution, determination and honesty * Scotland on Sunday *
It is Kay’s abundant wit that makes Red Dust Road such a moving, spirited work. This is a terrifically easy, evocative, and often amusing read . . . A remarkable, soul-searching journey * Sunday Herald *
Like the best memoirs, this one is written with novelistic and poetic flair. Red Dust Road is a fantastic, probing and heart-warming read * Independent *
Kay’s strength as a poet has always been her clear, plain style, and its fearless spoken poignancy -- Daily Telegraph
One of Scotland's most celebrated living writers * Spectator *

Jackie Kay was born in Edinburgh. A poet, novelist and writer of short stories, she has enjoyed great acclaim for her work for both adults and children. Her novel, Trumpet, won the Guardian Fiction Prize. She has published three collections of stories with Picador, Why Don’t You Stop Talking, Wish I Was Here, and Reality, Reality; three poetry collections, Fiere. Bantam and May Day; and her memoir, Red Dust Road. From 2016-21 she was the third modern Makar, National Poet for Scotland. She lives in Manchester and is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Salford.