Candice Carty-Williams has said she feels “proud” but “sad” to become the first black author to win book of the year at the British Book Awards.
Her critically acclaimed debut novel, Queenie, fended off titles from authors including Lisa Taddeo, Oyinkan Braithwaite and Margaret Atwood.
She’s joined on the winner’s podium by Bernardine Evaristo, who was named author of the year.
Her Booker-winning novel, Girl, Woman, Other, won fiction book of the year. More
Jamie Chadwick says she hopes the “stars will align” after a securing substantial backing to reach Formula 1.
Chadwick signed for the Italian Prema team following support from Rodin Cars’ multi-millionaire boss David Dicker.
The 22-year-old will compete in regional Formula 3 from this August, with the aim of rising up to International F3 and F2 with Prema.
She said the opportunity was a “dream” and hopes to be in a position to compete in F1 “by 2023 or 2024”.
The British driver, who won the female-only W Series last year, tested a car developed by Rodin in New Zealand in March, leading Dicker to claim she was an “exceptional talent”.
Rodin are aiming to produce the world’s fastest track car and to make it commercially available, and partnered Chadwick as a driver who could help with on-track feedback. More
We stand together in solidarity with our black students and staff.
As a university community and as individuals we are appalled by the senseless racist killing of George Floyd in the USA. We are equally saddened that the UK is not innocent. We know Sheku Bayoh, Kingsley Burrell, Sarah Reed, and many others have died in police custody in this country. We also all know about the racially motivated murder of Stephen Lawrence.
We need to see the situation for what it is and we need to be honest: these experiences exist and structural racism is present in our communities and in our universities. As employers, educators, researchers and community leaders we have a duty to act and an important part to play, and we should start with apologising for not doing enough and for not confronting racism with the urgency it deserves.
We also know saying this isn’t sufficient. We have a duty to do better. Equality, diversity and inclusion are founding principles of our institution and core beliefs of our students and staff. We know that world events and media coverage shouldn’t be the only driver for change but recent events and feedback from staff and students tells us that we need to do more.
With this in mind, we are committing to a review of all of our equality and diversity work and by the end of September 2020 we will be sharing our detailed plan of action setting out how we will do more to achieve systemic and long-lasting change for our students and staff. As part of this, we will be reflecting on the work done by the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee, the BAME attainment gap project and the BAME Staff Network.
The Vice-Chancellor will also be appointing a member of staff to work directly with her 1-2 days per week, on a secondment basis, to champion and deliver this important work.
We recognise that we also have a responsibility to educate ourselves and we will shortly be sharing resources for students and staff across the university.
In the meantime, we recognise how tough, hurtful, and traumatising the last few weeks have been to our black students and staff.
If you need support now, or at any time in the future, you can contact the Wellbeing Service or GSU Advice Service (for students) or the Employee Assistance Programme, a wellbeing champion or a member of Human Resources (for staff).
You can also join our BAME Staff Network (by emailing Natasha Abreo) or GSU’s BAME Student Society by emailing Mayo Femi-Obalemo, or email any suggestions you may have about how the university should take further action to Naseer Ahmad or Simone Murch from our EDI team.
Black lives matter.
Professor Jane Harrington
Vice-Chancellor and on behalf of the University of Greenwich
Dr Sandhi Patchay
Chair and on behalf of the University of Greenwich BAME Staff Network
GSU Officers
On behalf of Greenwich Students’ Union
Gail Brindley, Director of HR & Professor Mark O’Thomas, PVC, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Science, Co-Chairs, and on behalf of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee at the University of Greenwich
From 8 – 14 June it is Diabetes Awareness Week and with that in mind we have chosen Gary Mabbutt as our Inspirational Diversity Champion of the month.
Gary was a professional footballer who made more than 750 appearances playing for Bristol Rovers and Tottenham Hotspur, and also won 16 caps for England. He is best remembered for his 16-year spell at Tottenham Hotspur, where he played from 1982 until 1998, winning the UEFA Cup in 1984 and the FA Cup in 1991. His final appearance for the club came against Southampton on the last day of the 1997–98 season.
Gary has type 1 diabetes, and became an icon for many children with the condition. He famously appeared on the BBC’s children’s television programme Blue Peter where he demonstrated injecting insulin into an orange to show how he dealt with his condition on a daily basis.
After more than two decades in the sport, Gary is now Vice President and Patron of Diabetes UK, using his status as a well-known diabetic to raise awareness of the condition and encourage people with diabetes to live full lives.
He currently works as an ambassador for Tottenham Hotspur football club as well as the Football Association, Diabetes UK and the Willow Foundation a national charity that provides special days for seriously ill 11-40 year olds.
Gary was awarded an MBE in the 1994 New Year Honours for services to football.
To find out more about Diabetes Awareness Week click here https://www.diabetes.org.uk/get_involved/diabetes-week
To find out more about Gary see here https://www.performingartistes.co.uk/artistes/gary-mabbutt