about Sissay's early life and how it affected him. The show details his experience with social services, foster homes, abuse and his psychiatric diagnoses: post-traumatic stress disorder, avoidant personality disorder and alcohol use disorder. He brought a case against Wigan Council that was settled in 2018 with a six-figure payout and a formal apology to Sissay for the treatment he suffered when in care. In June 2019 it was announced that Sissay had won the 2019 PEN Pinter Prize, awarded to writers who take an "unflinching, unswerving" view of the world, with one of the judging panel, Maureen Freely, saying: "In his every work, Lemn Sissay returns to the underworld he inhabited as an unclaimed child. From his sorrows, he forges beautiful words and a thousand reasons to live and love." In January 2020, Sissay joined the Booker Prize judging panel, alongside Margaret Busby (chair), Lee Child, Sameer Rahim and Emily Wilson. In December 2020, he was featured walking in Dentdale towards England's highest railway station, in the Winter Walks series on BBC Four. In May 2021, Sissay appeared on BBC One's Have I Got News for You, hosted by Romesh Ranganathan, alongside fellow panellists Ian Hislop, Paul Merton and Jo Brand. Sissay was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2021 Birthday Honours for services to literature and charity. He was quoted in the Hackney Gazette as saying: "I'm honoured.... If you had gone to my 17-year-old self and said: 'In 2021 the Queen's going to give you [an honour], I would have said: 'No way.' So it's worth believing." Books Tender Fingers in a Clenched Fist. Bogle-L'Ouverture, 1988. . Rebel Without Applause. Bloodaxe Books, 1992 (Canongate Books, 2000). . Morning Breaks in the Elevator. Canongate Books, 1999. . The Fire People (editor). Payback Press, 1998. . The Emperor's Watchmaker. Bloomsbury Children's Books, 2001. . Listener, Canongate Books, 2008. . Hidden Gems (ed. Deirdre Osborne; Sissay contributed "Something Dark"), Oberon Books, 2008. . Refugee Boy, Bloomsbury stage adaptation of Benjamin Zephaniah's novel Refugee Boy, 2013. My Name Is Why, autobiography of his early life, with observations on the British care system. Canongate Books, 2019. Plays Skeletons in the Cupboard (1993), Bury Metro Arts Don't Look Down (1993) Chaos by Design (1994), Community Arts Workshop Storm (2002), Contact Theatre Something Dark (2006), Battersea Arts Centre/Contact Theatre/Apples and Snakes Why I Don't Hate White People (2011),