Scoop

I’m so thrilled to be the guest editor of your Black History Month issue. Its pages are bursting with wonderment and brilliance from Black people living in Britain today. I hope you love reading it as much as I loved being part of it. Black History M

John Blanke, featured on our front cover, was a musician in the court of Henry VIII Scoop . He is one of the first recorded Black people in Britain, at least since the Roman times. Read all about his story in the cartoon on pages 18-19. ■

Musa Omusi is an illustrator from Nairobi. His work is inspired by the world around him: the colours, patterns and shapes. He works with other artists that he meets along his way to bring peace, love and joy to the world. www.scoopthemag.co.uk instag

Invisibility or the ability to fly? Invisibility. If you had a spirit animal what would it be? A Jack Russell terrier. I have one, called Margot, and I think we’re very alike. Car journey: audio book or music? Music – songs from when I was young

Black History Month is an annual event during the month of October. It began as a way of remembering important people and events in the history of people of African descent and it has grown to include discussion of issues around race. The history of

. TELL YOU WHAT, WHY DON'T WE JUST CALL YOU JOHN? EH? JOHN BLANC. MAYBE? OR MAYBE JUST All JOHN BLACKE, IN CASE THE RICH FOLKS DON'T GET THE JOKE. OCCUPATION, JOHN? TRUMPET PLAYER? OK THEN, IF YOU WAIT AT THE BACK OF THE QUEUE YOUR OFFICIAL LETTER WI

Take some Picts, Celts and Silures And let them settle, Then overrun them with Roman conquerors. Remove the Romans after approximately 400 years Add lots of Norman French to some Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Vikings, then stir vigorously. Mix some hot

Food can speak. Obviously I don’t mean that it can really speak – with words, or a mouth or sounds! But the food we eat does show things about who we are, what we like and where we come from. When Tudor kings and queens held huge banquets with roaste

Walking up Chestnut Avenue, rain starts pouring down with fast, gigantic drops. I feel like it is going to flood, as if the puddles are going to become a river and wash me and my mum away. We run into a nearby shop. Removing the hood of my coat I see

by Renée Watson, illustrated by Mechal Roe Bloomsbury Children’s Books, £6.99 Review by Esmeralda, age eight Ways to Make Sunshine is about a girl called Ryan – her name means ‘leader’ – who has recently moved house because the house that they

Atinuke, Malorie Blackman, Olivia Danso, The Etherington Brothers and David Follett, Kereen Getten, Onyinye Iwu, Sharna Jackson, Jenny Jacoby, Sarah Odedina, Ruby Tandoh, Tom Whipple, Nadine Wild-Palmer, Elesha Williams, Ken Wilson-Max, Benjamin Zeph