Shortlists on shortlists: part 2 - Janet Alder

We asked the writers shortlisted for the 2025 Bread and Roses Award to recommend a book which has been shortlisted for the award in the last five years - and we're thrilled to share their thoughts in the coming weeks, before we announce the winner of the award on 15th September (click the link to join us for the online event)!

Our second blog post comes from Janet Alder, author of the brilliant Defiance : Racial Injustice, Police Brutality, A Sister's Fight for the Truth. The police killing of Christopher Alder was one of the most notorious deaths in custody in the UK, involving the destruction of evidence, a whitewash of an investigation and illegal surveillance. Christopher's sister Janet has been relentlessly fighting for justice for decades, and fearlessly holds the UK's state institutions to account in this extraordinary book.

Here is Janet's contribution...

Bread and Roses Award shortlist 2022: Abolishing the Police by Ed Koshka Duff (Dog Section Press)

Bread and Roses Award winner 2024: Divided: Racism, Medicine and Why We Need to Decolonise Healthcare by Annabel Sowemimo (Wellcome Collection)

At one time, I didn't believe anyone would publish the subject of the unlawful killing of my brother, Christopher, and multiple failures by the state against Black families. We are raised with the expectation that we have an incorruptible police system which treats everyone fairly. A growing number have realised this is not the case. After many injustices, little to no accountability and unfulfilled promises, Abolishing the Police finds some alternative, rather than this power which is a law onto itself, is increasingly necessary.

Divided highlights similar injustices in a system we all at some point need: healthcare. Three members of my immediate family have been in psychiatric care. My mother was deported following treatment, whilst her five children were still very young, and two of my brothers met their untimely deaths in care. From these experiences, it is clear to me that ideas about Black people and healthcare have not changed since the 18th-century anthropological view. Divided emphasises that we must ask questions, take responsibility, choose to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

These books remind us, as Black people, that we must keep our eyes open as we can not always expect to be treated fairly, but they also direct us to the light of hope for change.

As Abolishing the Police is currently out of print, I wanted to link a book list we posted a while ago about the topic of prisons, police and justice.