Friday Bridge: Becoming a Muslim; becoming everyone's business

Friday Bridge is a glimpse behind the veil into Islam untainted by cultural influence from the lived experience of a woman who navigated life between East and West, White and Brown, hedonism and piety.

Navigating the cultural landscape of Islam in Britain, the racial divides, Islamophobia, as well as the prejudices within the various Islamic communities themselves and their varying belief systems, Bates takes us on an insightful journey of a faith unfolding and what it means to be a successful, educated businesswoman, who chooses the most hated religion in the world.

Running throughout the story is the hedonistic rave and drug culture of Britain in the 90s. From illegal raves to club nights, euphoric highs and immense lows as friends die, and fall by the wayside - especially when the terror attacks of 9/11 and the 7/7 bombings take place.

Bates shares with us the goings on inside the mosques of Sheffield, answers the questions so many want to ask but are afraid of doing so in the ever increasing 'cancel culture' and hyper sensitivity of today's Western Cultures.

Her powerful sharing of her husband's brain injury and trauma, and the impact that has on her as she is left to deal with renovating a home, running a business and navigating the prejudices and cultural conflicts between her small farming village family and her husband's Arabian city family, gifts us moving moments of love, and the powerful feminine resilience running through every fiber of her body.

With her keen awareness and professional experience of working within the areas of cultural difference and cohesion, living life as a "terrorist" and "posh Paki", as well as facing a different kind of terrorism from those who support Britain First and the English Defence League, as well as the UKIP followers, Dawn shares the often heart-breaking reality of choosing a faith everyone loves to hate.

From random police stops and checks, fighting for social justice, religious freedom, peaceful integration and doing her best to understand what it means to be British; this book brings together the hidden meaning of 'British values' over the last thirty years of modern Britain.

It is the reality of a white English girl who fell in love with a 'bloody foreigner'.

This is a book which is guaranteed to make readers stop and analyse everything they think they know about multicultural Britain, and reflect on their own interactions with neighbours, colleagues and strangers.

With brilliantly funny anecdotes, tear jerking moments and a heart worn on her sleeve, Dawn Bates is the voice of humanity, as well as diversity, equity and inclusion that the world needs to hear more from.