“Poet, writer, lyricist, musician and naughty boy,” is how Benjamin Zephaniah, who died today aged 65, described himself on his website. He was the author of 30 books of poetry, stories for adults, teens and children, and nonfiction, as well as several plays. Then there was his work as a musician and sometime actor. But in his memoir The Life and Rhymes of Benjamin Zephaniah, published to celebrate his 60th birthday in 2018, he listed one of his greatest achievements as reaching 30 “without being shot”.
Indeed, it is remarkable that a boy who left school at 13 and ended up in prison should become a national treasure, loved for his irreverent yet often deeply serious and political poetry and performances; such an establishment figure (a phrase he would have hated) that his work is part of the curriculum, he hosted a concert for Nelson Mandela at the Royal Albert Hall in 1996, and he was offered an OBE in 2003, which he declined with characteristic aplomb. “No way Mr Blair, no way Mrs Queen. I am profoundly anti-empire.”
