I wanted to change the world, but the world I was born into changed me first.

My name is Jeremiah Emmanuel. I’m twenty one years old. I’m an activist, an entrepreneur, a former deputy young mayor of Lambeth and member of the UK Youth Parliament.

Raised in south London, I lived in an area where crime and poverty were everywhere and opportunities to escape were rare. Violence was accepted, prison was expected. That was the world I knew; the only one I thought was possible for people like me.

Then I discovered another world, one with opportunities round every corner. As I grew my network, I realised that the system actively works against certain members of society, silently preventing people from succeeding. I made it my mission to change this, and to teach people like me about the secret rules of society that empower some to get ahead and keep others down. This is my story of how I made it, and how others can too.

Memoir meets manifesto, Dreaming in a Nightmare is a powerful account of the challenges faced by a new generation and how readers can rally to create change.