Believe - The story of Betty Campbell

In 2021 a statue of Betty Campbell was unveiled in Cardiff; Wales' first black headmistress. In this novel, which weaves fact and fiction, history and humour, we can read about the real Betty - about her family, her childhood in Cardiff Docks in the 1930s, her period at Aberdare as an evacuee, and her incredible journey afterwards.

Believe is the English-language adaptation of Y Lliwiau i Gyd, the story of Betty Campbell, the first Black headmistress in Wales. Although this is a fictionalised version of Betty’s life, author Casia Wiliam provides an authentic account as she worked closely with Betty’s family (including Betty’s grandson Lewis, who provided the book’s illustrations) and cultural consultant Ali Yassine who, like Betty, was born and raised in Tiger Bay.The book begins with Mrs Campbell, headteacher of Mount Stuart Primary in Cardiff, narrating a story of how a young girl named Betty overcame prejudice and injustice to establish herself as a school teacher.Having Betty narrate her own journey, from early life in the docks right up until the end of her trailblazing career, is both the book’s strength and weakness. This narrative device permits necessary time skips, squeezing an unconventional and interesting career into just over a hundred pages; and the scenes where Mrs Cambell and the children discuss past events allows the reader to overhear important discussions regarding systematic racism, racial prejudice and their lasting effects.The downside of these frequent time shifts was that it became something of a challenge to gauge how old Betty was in certain sections of the book, especially when changes occurred in the middle of a chapter. Denoting a flashback with a different font or a sub-heading may have made it easier to keep track of the book’s timeline, and avoid frequent interruptions of ‘How old is she now?’.But that is a minor criticism for a story that drew gasps of indignation from my daughter (‘They can’t say that!’, ‘What do they mean she can’t be a teacher?!’) and led to many questions about the challenges faced by Betty and others like her. It tied in nicely with the history my daughter had studied in school (such as the history of Rosa Parks), and provoked discussions about the challenges faced not only by Betty as a Black person, but also as a woman at a time when married women were not normally expected to have careers. We talked about the value of representations of diversity, and the strength of character needed to overcome prejudice – something Betty clearly had in spades!Finally, once we’d finished the book we watched an interview with Betty and heard her philosophy in her own words. She was clearly a remarkable individual, and this was a much more satisfying way to learn about her trailblazing life than reading a factual biography.Rebecca RobertsBelieve was about a person called Betty telling a story about how she became a teacher. I liked that the story told us to be who you are, don’t let anyone stop you. I didn’t like that it kept going backwards and forwards in time, I think it was confusing. I liked the story. It gave me a valuable life lesson.Review by Elizabeth Roberts (aged 10) -- Books Council of Wales

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