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Alex Alphonso Wheatle MBE (3 January 1963) is an award winning black British novelist of Jamaican heritage and has been described as one of the UK’s most exciting writers.[1]

Wheatle spent much of his childhood in a Surrey children's home. At sixteen he was a founder member of the Crucial Rocker sound system and his DJ name was Yardman Irie. He wrote lyrics about his observations of everyday Brixton life. By 1980 Wheatle was residing in a social services hostel in Brixton, South London. He witnessed and lived through the 1981 Brixton riots, its precursors and aftermath. Wheatle was briefly incarcerated following the Brixton riots. While serving his sentence he read authors like Chester Himes, Richard Wright, C. L. R. James and John Steinbeck. He once built speaker boxes for local sound systems to help him through unemployment.

He has since been called upon to talk on the subject of the Brixton riots, most prominently in the 2006 BBC programme 'Battle for Brixton'.[2] His early books are based on experiences from his life living in Brixton as a teenager and his time in social services care.

Wheatle was awarded London Arts Board New Writers Award for East of Acre Lane.[3]

In 2008, Wheatle was awarded the MBE for services to literature in the Queen's Birthday Honours list.[4]

He now visits schools, colleges, universities, libraries and prisons facilitating creative writing classes and performing inspiring speeches. He has also narrated an audio guide to the streets of Brixton for soundmap.

He is a member of English PEN.

Wheatle's debut novel, Brixton Rock, was adapted for the stage and performed at the Young Vic in July 2010.[5]

He wrote and performed UPRISING, a one man play based on his own life at TARA ARTS STUDIOS, Wandsworth, London.

Wheatle lives in London.

[edit]Published works

Wheatle’s published works include:
Brixton Rock (1999)
East of Acre Lane (2001)
The Seven Sisters (2002)
Checkers with Mark Parham (2003)
Island Songs (2005)
The Dirty South (2008)
Brenton Brown (2011)

His books have been translated into French and Italian.

[edit]References
^ Alex Wheatle - Interview with Myvillage
^ Broadcast 10 April 2008 on BBC Two. See Opposite sides of Brixton's front line, BBC News article
^ Alex Wheatle - Biography British Council, Contemporary Writers
^ Birthday Honours List 2008
^ Brixton Rock, Talawa Theatre Company.
Retrieved 12 August 2010