Lola Young has been an actress, an academic, an activist and a crossbench peer. But from the age of eight weeks to eighteen years, she was moved between foster care placements and children's homes. It would take many decades before she was able to make sense of her childhood.

In her poignant and inspiring memoir, she pieces together her own remarkable life story, using fragments of memory, her care records, and her imagination where parts of her story are missing. As she revisits her childhood in north London, she also provides glimpses into her life as a peer, activist, and campaigner - and tells the story of her attempts to reconnect with her roots in later adulthood.

A moving and beautifully written account of being a child in care and a Black child in a white family, Eight Weeks is also a vital part of contemporary Black British history.

'I am in awe of the woman who grew from the child in this book ... The pure character necessary to grow through this dark entangled forest of childhood is the stuff of legends. Bravissimo' LEMN SISSAY, author of My Name is Why

"I love Eight Weeks ... Baroness Lola Young reveals how a child is constantly wronged by a system which was supposed to help ... In Eight Weeks Lola befriends her childhood self. She holds her by the hand as they enter the storm of a system raging around her. I am in awe of the woman who grew from the child in this book ... The pure character necessary to grow through this dark entangled forest of childhood is the stuff of legends. Bravissimo Lola" - Lemn Sissay, author of My Name is Why