PGCE, class of 1981
Honorary Doctorate, awarded 2002
Writer

I always dreamt of becoming a poet, writer and storyteller, but my parents said I should do a 'proper job'. So, I decided to return to university in my twenties to study for a PGCE. I specialised in English, Drama and Religious Education, with an extra focus on ‘Teaching in a Multicultural Society’. I was probably the most qualified person on my course: at that point I had four degree qualifications, the highest being a PhD!

As a mature student at what was then Sheffield City Polytechnic, my experiences were rather different from those who join straight out of college, but no less enjoyable. I didn’t have much time to socialise; there were other demands on my time. In my spare time I was writing and romancing (in Charlotte Bronte’s words: 'Reader, I married him')! My classes were in leafy Collegiate Crescent and the library was a treasure-house for me.

I had an inspirational lecturer, Max Payne, who also wrote my reference. I made endless unsuccessful applications to secondary schools. At the time, Sheffield schools had almost no black and minority ethnic teachers. One day my lecturer said that someone had rung from a school and sniggered: ‘What a joke! This woman with a name like Chatterjee thinks she can teach English here!’ Furious, he told him that my English was excellent, but added that he hoped I would not work in such a racist place.

Eventually, I taught in schools before taking up the post of Sheffield’s Community Relations Director. In ten years in this post, I promoted racial equality and was glad to see a major improvement in the numbers of BME teachers recruited.

From 1997 I became a full-time writer. My proudest moments include receiving Sheffield Hallam University’s honorary doctorate for ‘outstanding contribution to Literature, Community Service and the Arts’, in 2002; an MBE in the Queen’s 2008 New Year Honours List; and being an Olympic Torch Bearer in 2012.