Lenny Henry – not all laughs

Lenny Henry, the Brit comedian and Shakespearean actor, has brought out a memoir covering his childhood and early career after he won New Faces, but stops before his marriage to Dawn French. He was born 29 August 1958 at 3 am (from memory) in Sedgley, England to Jamaican immigrant parents, though he only discovered his biological father was different from his mother’s husband when he was ten years old. His mother appeared to have been violent towards him but he remarkably bears no ill will for his childhood, saying in an interview that working-class kids just accepted the way life was and he was very fond of her.

He’s had an amazingly versatile career starting young, founding Comic Relief and doing stand-up as well as comedy on the box, serious drama on television and classical theatre. He campaigns for diversity in the arts, is a prominent spokesman against racism and was knighted in 2015.

He’s a controlled Sun Pluto in hard-working Virgo opposition an 8^th house Pisces Moon – so a very private individual who won’t much like talking about his personal life. He has an ambitious Mars in Taurus in his 10^th house of career in an excitable square to Venus Uranus in entertaining Leo, and inconjunct Saturn. The last does give some indication of the unfairness of his childhood but he’s also got an upbeat Jupiter Neptune in his 4^th trine his Moon which would smooth over rough edges and leave him looking on the bright side.

There’s a good deal ahead for him on the career front with tr Saturn moving through his Second Quadrant and will reach his peak in another decade or so. He’s not looking that contented over the next eighteen months with an irritable Progressed Moon conjunct his Mars, a confusing Solar Arc Pluto conjunct his 4^th house Neptune; and tr Neptune square his Saturn in 2020. But he’ll bounce with more enthusiasm from 2022 onwards.