Passing: An Alternative History of Identity (Hardback)

'Pelham, a writer with a flair for capturing complex sensitivities, has produced a provocative, engaging history that doesn't balk at considering the fierce contemporary debate surrounding gender identity, or what happens when passing becomes trespassing, AKA cultural appropriation.' - The Observer

'A fascinating and engrossing exploration of racial passing and fluid racial identity from an award-winning documentary filmmaker and journalist.' - Cosmopolitan UK

‘[Offers] long histories, with much to say about the present.’

'This remarkable book merges perceptive understanding of sociopolitical identity problems facing many who are disempowered and marginalised owing to skin-colour, sexuality, gender, caste, class or religion.' - Morning Star

'Expertly navigating themes of identity, boundaries and belonging, Pelham combines moving storytelling with patient writing to create a truly transformative experience.' - David Lammy MP, author of 'Tribes: How Our Need to Belong Can Make or Break Society'

'Thoroughly elevates the complex reality of day-to-day identity dynamics, tracing their rich historical origins and posing pertinent questions for the future.' - Koa Beck, author of 'White Feminism'

'A profound and heartfelt meditation on the cost of self-effacement and the need to forge a new sense of self from the debris of our atavisms.' - Aatish Taseer, author of 'The Twice-Born', 'The Temple-Goers' and 'Stranger to History'

'A gripping account of how a person can be liberated by taking on another identity, or indeed how their own existence exposes the artificial boundaries of otherness. With compassion, honesty, and a storyteller's eye for beauty in meaning, Pelham destigmatises and viscerally recreates these crossings to another shore.' - Medina Tenour Whiteman, author of 'The Invisible Muslim'