……….“creativity is a necessary tool to tackle the modern world for young people”. Alex Wheatle MBE | 3 January 1963-16 March 2025
Theatre Peckham and Words of Colour announce the launch of Alex Wheatle Day on Monday 4 May 2026 at Peckham Fringe to celebrate the literary legacy of the multi-award-winning author who died on 16 March 2025. (Main image: Alex Wheatle MBE – Credit Adrianne McKenzie)
The inaugural Alex Wheatle Day, which will be an annual event, includes a staged adaptation of Alex’s YA novella WITNESS (Serpent’s Tail, 2022) written by Theatre Peckham’s CEO Suzann McLean and writer David Fielding. Commissioned by Alex before he passed away, the play explores courage, loyalty and the price of telling the truth against a backdrop of knife crime.
Suzann McLean MBE, Alex Wheatle Day Co-Founder and CEO and Artistic Director, Theatre Peckham, said: “Theatre Peckham and Words of Colour wanted to create Alex Wheatle Day to honour Alex’s legacy as a writer and the impact of his work. Alex encouraged people from underrepresented backgrounds to tell their own stories, and his books offer a realistic picture of growing up in contemporary Britain. He believed sharing these stories could inspire change. At Theatre Peckham, Alex Wheatle Day allows storytelling, community and opportunity to connect.”
Alex Wheatle Day will also host a foyer exhibition on Alex’s legacy, curated by Words of Colour, a special reggae, dub, Lovers Rock and grime set by DJ Hybrid J, alongside food stalls and raffles for prizes, including Alex’s award-winning Crongton book series donated by Hachette Children’s Group. There will be a post-show panel featuring award-winning writer and poet Derek Owusu (Borderline Fiction), actors Sheyi Cole (who played Alex) and Elliot Edusah (who played Alex’s best friend Valin) in Small Axe, Steve McQueen’s anthology film series, and Iyare Igiehon, film and TV industry executive and former Creative Diversity Partner at the BBC where Alex’s Crongton series was adapted for TV.
Joy Francis, Alex Wheatle Day Co-Founder and Executive Director, Words of Colour, said: “I knew and worked with Alex Wheatle for over a decade. Alex was a literary activist, poet, playwright, novelist, screenwriter and MC with a deep knowledge and love of reggae, dub and Lovers Rock which he admitted saved his life. He wanted young people, especially young black people, to have the opportunity to be creative, to shine and be heard. Once a year, Alex Wheatle Day will honour his creative palette while championing storytelling at an unprecedented time of financial strain on the arts.”
Alex Wheatle, aka the ‘Brixton Bard’, wrote 21 books, including a novella, and won the London Arts Board Writers Prize 2000 for Brixton Rock, the Guardian’s Children’s Fiction Award in 2016 and the Renaissance Quiz Writers’ Choice Award for Crongton Knights. The BBC’s adaptation of Crongton won the RTS Award for Best Children’s Programme 2026 and has been nominated for a BAFTA Television Award 2026.
A regular visitor to schools and prisons across the country on literacy programmes, Alex believed that “creativity is a necessary tool to tackle the modern world for young people”.
Actor Sheyi Cole who played Alex Wheatle in Small Axe, Steve McQueen’s acclaimed anthology film series, said: “Every time I think about Alex it’s a constant reminder of his resilience. Take one day at a time; having the courage not to let your past define your future. This is something I hold on to and try to mould my own life around. Having a day dedicated to Alex will not only remind people of this but also educate the generation to follow. It will be a beautiful day for people to celebrate his legacy.”
More info or to book: www.theatrepeckham.co.uk/show/witness/
Alex Wheatle MBE | 3 January 1963-16 March 2025
Alex Wheatle was a founder member of the Crucial Rocker sound system where he wrote lyrics for performances in community halls, youth clubs and blues dances in South London His passion for writing led to his debut novel Brixton Rock. Written in longhand, it was published by Rosemarie Hudson at BlackAmber Books in 1999. Attracting critical acclaim, Alex won the London Arts Board Writers Prize in 2000. This was followed by East of Acre Lane, The Seven Sisters, Checkers, Island Songs, The Dirty South, Brenton Brown. In 2008, Alex was awarded an MBE for services to literature.
He successfully pivoted into young adult (YA) fiction with Liccle Bit (Little, Brown, 2015). The book was longlisted for the Carnegie Medal 2015. Crongton Knights, the follow-up novel to Liccle Bit, won the Guardian’s Children’s Fiction Award 2016. The novel also bagged the Renaissance Quiz Writers’ Choice Award and was shortlisted for the 2017 Bookseller Young Adult prize.
Home Girl, the fourth in the Crongton series, was published in April 2019 and was shortlisted for the Neustadt prize for children’s literature 2020. Alex’s next novel Cane Warriors, published in October 2020, was nominated by Arbeitskreis für Jugendliteratur, the German national section of IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People) in the category Jugendbuch for the 2024 Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis. After his prostate cancer diagnosis in 2023, Sufferah: Memoir of a Brixton Reggae Head was published.
Two posthumous YA books by Alex were published in 2025 – The Girl with the Red Boots and A Crongton Christmas Party.
On 24 March 2025, eight days after his passing, a 10-part comedy-drama Crongton, based on his best-selling novels, was launched on BBC Three and BBC iPlayer, written by award-winning writer and comedian Archie Maddocks and directed by Ethosheia Hylton. BBC’s Crongton won the RTS Award for Best Children’s Programme 2026 and has been nominated for a BAFTA Television Award 2026.
Alex Wheatle Day Founding Partners
Theatre Peckham | theatrepeckham.co.uk
Theatre Peckham is a multi-award-winning producing and learning theatre in South East London. In 2026, it celebrates its 40th anniversary under the theme Your Stage, Your Story, Your Theatre Peckham.
Words of Colour – The Immersive Change Agency | wordsofcolour.co.uk
Words of Colour creates alternative pathways and sustainable opportunities for writers, creatives, entrepreneurs and communities of colour to thrive – and for unheard stories to be told.
