Maya Angelou's six volumes of autobiography are a testament to the talents & resilience of this extraordinary writer. Loving the world she also knows its cruelty. As a Black woman she has known discrimination & extreme poverty but also hope joy achievement & celebration. In this first volume of her six books of autobiography Maya Angelou beautifully evokes her childhood with her grandmother in the American south of the 1930s. She learns the power of the white folks at the other end of town & suffers the terrible trauma of rape by her mother's lover. 'I write about being a Black American woman however I am always talking about what it's like to be a human being. This is how we are what makes us laugh & this is how we fall & how we somehow amazingly stand up again' Maya Angelou