Ficitonal book is based on a boy who falls into criminality

A teenager who has witnessed underprivileged youths fall into criminality has penned a book based on what she has seen.

Tannika Williams-Nelson, 16 of Caple Road, Harlesden, hopes her fictional novel based on a boy called Jayden will send a positive message to youths in the borough.

‘Tales of the hood’, which is published Xlibiris, focuses on the world of gangs, drugs and violence and how her subject is drawn into it through growing up in a corrupt society.

Tannika, a former pupil at Wembley High School, said: “He suffers a lot of hardship and like a lot of people where I live; he gets caught up in gang life, drugs and violence.

“His goal is to support his family and he ends up using music to help him turn his life around.

“The book is based on what I have seen and heard in my area. Not many people understand that young people can be bad for a reason.

“They don’t always do bad things for pointlessness. Everything happens for a reason even if it is not morally right. Teens only do what they think they have to but people can be helped.”

Commenting on the riots that swept through the country and saw a small number of businesses targeted in Brent, she said: “People were trying to prove a point but it escalated into riots which I am against.

“The young people had a message but they ended up damaging their own community and contradicted themselves. They have just made it worse for themselves as they will have to pay it all back.”

‘Tales of the hood’ is available at www.amazon.co.uk and will be launched in book shops later this year.