We Are All Birds of Uganda

Written By Miriam Hanna

We Are All Birds of Uganda by Hafsa Zayyan
Reviewed by Mimi
📕📕📕📕📕


Sameer, a successful City lawyer with the world at his feet has a complicated relationship with his family. They were a part of the Ugandan Asians who fled Uganda when Idi Amin took power and removed citizenship from those he didn't deem to be native Ugandans. Sameer is the family's success story but the expectation is that he would return to the family home and take over the business once he got his independence out of his system

This story is gripping and not because it is a crime thriller or dramatic romance. It is a seemingly ordinary life being laid out in an extraordinary way. Sameer goes on a journey of discovery which includes a visit to the old family home in Uganda. He discovers who he is and who he wants to be as a man, away from his family and all the expectation there is. He was an intriguing character, sometimes I didn't like him and sometimes I was really championing him on and I think that's why I enjoyed this book. Realistic, brilliantly flawed characters with a dose of escapism.

Miriam Hanna

Aka Mimi. I have known Linda for a very, very long time. We grew up together and you learn very quickly that when she gets an idea in her head, you would be an idiot not to back her to see it through. When the idea of the book club came up it was another lightbulb moment where I knew this wasn't only going to be a success but really fun.


I have always been a bookworm. Remember when you were little and you went shopping with your mum or dad and they gave you a toy or something to occupy yourself with whilst you were in the trolley? I used to get books to keep me quiet. They were and are my ultimate form of escapism and more and more they are about understanding who I am as a person. Books make me cry more than films and TV Shows. I can get lost for hours. I love historic fiction, political thrillers and gritty crime novels but also biographies and memoirs of people I find interesting like sportspeople. I was fortunate to be in the Harry Potter generation and if weren't for those books I don't know what I would have. Young literature was so poor at the point. To have a book that had me and my family queuing up at midnight to buy was seriously special.

Whether you listen to audio books, read off a kindle or stick to carrying around good old fashioned hard copies (that's me!) I truly believe reading is the best way to spend some time every day.


The books I would have with me on a desert island? 📚🏝Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Akzaban, Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, The Chimp Paradox by Steve Peters, The Power by Naomi Alderman, Mom & Me & Mom by Maya Angelou, Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian, Born a Crime by Trevor Noah and The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

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