Walsall professor releases an evocative political fiction addressing the impact of climate change and plastic pollution affecting our very existence.
Political fiction highlighting current environmental and immigration issues. The story has a dual timeline, in Dover and London in the UK and in Ethiopia. The Plastic Migrant is due to be published on the 28th October 2024.
The book can be purchased directly from Professor Gatrad and for every book sold via this method, £8 will go direct to the charity - contact Professor Gatrad at drgatrad@hotmail.com and provide address once the book has been purchased (Professor Gatrad will cover the postage)
The book can also be bough via Amazon but the percentage to the charity is much less.
All proceeds go to children abroad to help them with their education tools - in particular climate change.
The novel was co-written by Professor Rashid Gatrad OBE and Jade Smedley-Baugh. Professor Rashid Gatrad OBE is based in Walsall and is keen to promote in the local area.
Professor Rashid Gatrad OBE explains: “Working as a humanitarian round the world I broke my foot and was hospitalised for many weeks with sepsis. Here I watched Blue Planet on TV on the day my grandson was born. I thought – what sort of a world is he coming into? Then I set up WASUP – World Against Single Use Plastic www.wasupme.com which is now global and educated myself by getting a qualification in Planetary Health which included plastic pollution and climate change. This led to raising awareness of the impending problems the world is facing and suggesting how as individuals we all have a tiny but significant role to play. I conjured up the story of the Plastic Migrant and Jade made it into a play which ran over 3 days to full capacity audiences. Now we have a book to enjoy and reflect on how man’s activity is coming to haunt man – but there is hope!.”
Manjolo, fleeing his homeland, in search of solace and perhaps a better life for him and his wife, finds himself embroiled in the British immigration system and lost in a world filled with single use plastics caused by the inevitability of human failings.
A riches to rags story with a political edge, it not only educates but resonates, highlighting current issues, the impact of which we, the custodians of this planet, are already facing.
Police officer Lyndsey Dean is the one whose presence speaks of the unlimited power of kindness and through Manjolo’s interaction with her highlights the importance of faith as a catalyst to save the world from nature’s greatest enemy – man himself.
Can one man be that change?
Professor Rashid Gatrad OBE, a professor of paediatrics, is on the climate change committee of the Royal College of Paediatrics with a qualification in Planetary Health. He has published medical books and many other publications, including climate change impact on children and The Story of Three Plastic Bottles in English, Urdu and Chinese. He has won many national and international environmental awards including the prestigious BBC ‘Making a difference award.’
Jade Smedley-Baugh has worked in the NHS, the arts sector, and now works in the education sector. She has been an English teacher, a Head of Performing Arts and is now a secondary school librarian, academically coaching students and running the school’s drama club and performance projects.
