SHORTLISTED FOR RANDOM HOUSE BEST FIRST CHAPTER AT THE FESTIVAL OF WRITING AND THE BIOGRAPHERS' CLUB TONY LOTHIAN PRIZE. JUDGES SAID:

'This story is told with immediacy and passion.'
'A major contribution to Black history.'

Louise Little was the mother of Malcolm Little, the man who would become the American Civil Rights Icon Malcolm X. Drawing on previously unseen sources 'The Life of Louise Norton Little' explores Louise's early life in Grenada and her journeys to Canada and the United States as a young woman.

Louise was a proud and independent Black woman. She and her children endured many injustices at the hands of the White welfare system. In later life, unfairly judged to be insane after the birth of her eighth child she was taken against her will to Kalamazoo State Hospital. She remained incarcerated there for a quarter of a century, until her family secured her release.

Despite its tragedies, Louise's story is ultimately one of courage and an abiding sense of civil rights and social justice. These are the values she passed on to all of her children and their descendants.