Ebury wins five-way auction for activist Smallman’s deeply personal memoir

Ebury Press has scooped Mina Smallman’s as-yet-untitled memoir of her life and activism in a five-way auction.

Editor Hana Teraie-Wood acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to the former Archdeacon of Southend and activist’s “deeply personal” account from David Riding at MBA Literary Agency for publication in hardback in  summer 2023.

The book will tell the story of her life and activism and call for urgent and positive change in Britain today. 

Starting from her childhood in foster care and arriving at the present day, Smallman will look back on her time as a schoolteacher and as the first woman of colour to be an Archdeacon in the Church of England, before sharing her experience of losing her two daughters, Bibaa and Nicole, who were murdered on 6th June 2020. It will cover her subsequent fight for justice and for a safer, better future for women and girls and people of colour in Britain.  

Smallman said: “This will hopefully be a book about hope, and not just for women of colour. It’s a story that should resonate with anyone who has been told they are not good enough. Or that they don’t belong because of ethnicity, class, religion, disability or sexuality. The list could be endless. The challenge for us all is to know your worth.”

Teraie-Wood said: “I am so honoured to be working with Mina, who, in her short time in the public eye, and despite immeasurable hardship and grief, has already moved mountains and challenged our society to be better. Her full story is one of a life devoted to leading communities and supporting others, and I can’t wait for readers to connect with her message and voice.”

News of the book comes ahead of a march on 7th June in honour of Bibaa and Nicole, and all the women who have lost their lives to male violence.