Context: 1981 Britain, Race & the Care System
Britain in 1981
My Name is Leon by Kit de Waal is set in 1981 Birmingham, during a period of intense social upheaval. Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government had been in power since 1979, implementing policies of economic austerity that hit working-class and Black communities hardest. Unemployment was soaring, particularly in industrial cities like Birmingham, and racial tensions were at breaking point.
The novel is set against the real Handsworth riots of July 1981 — which followed Brixton and Toxteth, and grew out of racial discrimination, aggressive policing, and mass unemployment in Black communities.
The sus laws (the ‘suspected person’ laws) allowed police to stop and search anyone they suspected of criminal intent. In practice, this meant young Black men were routinely harassed. The Brixton riots erupted in April 1981, followed by Handsworth in July — both fuelled by the same toxic combination of poverty, racism, and police brutality.
Race Relations in 1980s Britain
The 1980s was a decade when overt racism was commonplace and largely unchallenged by institutions. The National Front had marched openly through cities in the late 1970s. Black and mixed-race families faced discrimination in housing, employment, education, and — crucially for this novel — the care system.
In the 1980s, the care system operated with what we would now recognise as institutional racism. White babies were considered more ‘adoptable’ because there were more white families seeking to adopt. Black and mixed-race children were often left in long-term foster care rather than placed with permanent families.
De Waal draws on real social work practices of the era. The separation of Leon and Jake in the novel reflects documented cases where siblings of different races were split up because the system prioritised racial matching — or, more accurately, prioritised finding homes for white children while failing Black ones.
The care system at this time was also underfunded, with overworked social workers managing enormous caseloads. Children’s emotional needs were often secondary to bureaucratic processes.
The Handsworth Riots
On 10 July 1981, tensions in Handsworth, Birmingham, exploded into violence. It began when a well-known police superintendent was attacked as he tried to calm rumours of a National Front march. Young people fought the police. Cars were burned, shops were looted, and 121 people were arrested. The rioting ran from 10 to 12 July and injured 40 police officers.
De Waal uses the riots not just as a backdrop but as a turning point in the plot. They represent the moment when suppressed rage — both communal and personal — finally erupts. Leon’s anger at losing Jake mirrors the community’s anger at systemic injustice.
De Waal wrote this novel in 2016, looking back at 1981. This retrospective viewpoint allows her to show readers how structural racism operated — things that were invisible to many white people at the time are made starkly visible through Leon’s child perspective. The reader can see what Leon cannot fully understand: that the system is not merely failing him, but is designed in ways that disadvantage him because of his race.
Understanding the historical context is essential for literary analysis. When De Waal describes social workers making decisions about Leon and Jake, she is not just telling a fictional story — she is dramatising a real pattern of discrimination that affected thousands of real children.
Kit de Waal’s Background
Kit de Waal (born 1960) grew up in Birmingham as the daughter of an Irish mother and a Kittitian (Caribbean) father. She worked for fifteen years in criminal and family law, served as a magistrate, and sat on adoption panels dealing with children in care. Her professional experience gives the novel its unflinching accuracy about how the care system operates — and fails.
De Waal has spoken openly about how the novel draws on both her professional knowledge and her personal experience of growing up mixed-race in 1970s and 1980s Britain. The novel is dedicated “For Bethany and Luke”. The story is fictional, but it stands for a widespread reality.