Chatto wins Peter Brathwaite’s family history of Barbados in four-way auction

Chatto & Windus has won opera singer Peter Brathwaite’s family history Barbados, Not All of Me Will Die, in a four-way auction. Scheduled for publication in 2026/27, the memoir delves into the 1816 rebellion of enslaved people on the island, as experienced by Brathwaite’s ancestors. 

Clara Farmer, publishing director at the Vintage imprint, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights at auction from James Pullen at the Wylie Agency. 

The blurb reads: “When Peter’s mum, a former NHS nurse of the Windrush generation, gives him his grandpap’s cou-cou stick (for making Barbadian cornmeal), Peter’s investigation into his heritage begins.

“He soon finds that not only is he descended from 18th-century sugar-plantation owner John Brathwaite, but that members of his family also include Ann – an enslaved mistress of an enslaver ancestor – and Margaret and her husband Addo, who became free and landowning people of colour following the great insurrection of 1816. Margaret also went on to found the Brathwaite family festival, still celebrated today.” 

“Taking the Brathwaite family motto as it’s working title, Not All of Me Will Die promises to be an emotional reckoning with a legacy of oppression, yet one that opens the door to a richer understanding of colonial experience and our shared history.” 

Farmer said: “Peter is a stunning singer and broadcaster, but his work as a visual artist and advocate for Black representation shone out during lockdown when he took the Getty Museum challenge to a new level of insight, humour and compassion with the hashtag #rediscoveringblackportraiture.

“Now Peter has his own incredible family story to tell: his talent as a stage performer – communicating and collaborating with his audiences – makes for a playful and companionable voice on the page. Peter is sure to make eager fans of his readers as they accompany him on what promises to be a dramatic, difficult, yet deeply meaningful story of existence and resistance.” 

Brathwaite said: “I am thrilled that Not All of Me Will Die  has found a home at Chatto, and I will be working with Clara to bring this highly personal but universal story to life.  

“The history of colonial Barbados is confounding and disturbing, and while this book examines that, it was born out of an impulse to find new ways to engage with our collective past and appreciate the diverse ways enslaved human beings invented their own futures beyond the frame of their oppressors. The scattered pieces left behind tell of exile, survival, endurance and memory, illuminating the missing chapters in British history, too.” 

Brathwaite is a baritone based in the UK and performing internationally and is also a visual artist. His first book Rediscovering Black Portraiture (Getty, 2023) contained reenacted portraits of Black men and women, as part of the Getty Museum art challenge during the pandemic. A solo exhibition of his work was shown at the Bristol Museum & Art Gallery in 2023.  

He also writes and presents for BBC Radio 3 and is currently a visiting artist with the Humanities Cultural Programme supported by Bodleian Libraries, Oxford, and is a Fellow Commoner at The Queen’s College, University of Oxford.