It's bad enough being treated as an orphan and having to endure a succession of foster homes, living in an orphanage, or being farmed out to a succession of 'Aunties' and not knowing who your biological parents are. It gets a lot worse when your skin is 'coffee-coloured' and your mother, when you finally confront her, refuses to allow you to call her 'Mother'. This was the situation that John Edward Bankole Jones found himself in.

Nevertheless, he manages to forge himself a highly successful life as a diplomat, journalist and lawyer. He vividly describes the contrast between living in the developing world in Sierra Leone with his African father and his White mother in England. This is his story.