Refugee Boy, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds
Benjamin Zephaniah's second novel Refugee Boy has played a powerful role in humanising the plight of the enforced migrant for a generation of young people. Published in 2001 following his encounter with a young Sri Lankan boy who had witnessed the murder of his parents in the country's brutal civil war, the poet wrote the book hoping to convince his audience that refugees were not just statistics but real, brave, liv…