Amma

Amma is an independent theatre-maker who has just begun to break into the mainstream at the start of the book with her play The Last Amazon of Dahomey, which is about to premiere at The National. Amma is a black feminist lesbian woman who found, at the beginning of her career, that her opportunities were limited and so she decided to found her own theatre company, Bush Women Theatre, with her friend Dominique so that they could make art on their own terms. For many years, Amma lived in a converted factory with a group of left-wing environmentalists, feminists, anarchists, and other alternative types. Now middle-aged, Amma owns a home which she purchased with her inheritance and is the mother of a nineteen-year-old university student. Her daughter, Yazz was conceived with Amma's gay friend Roland, who also wanted to be a parent.

Amma raised her daughter to be...