
News / Marvin Rees
Rees recalls regrets and successes at book launch
Marvin Rees was greeted with claps and cheers when he went up on stage at the Bristol launch of his memoir, Let’s See What Happens.
The event on Tuesday evening at the Galleries was well attended.
Those in the audience included Rees’ mum, Janet; his mayoral predecessor, George Ferguson; former deputy mayor, Asher Craig; and Alex Raikes, director of anti-racism charity SARI.
is needed now More than ever
The launch event saw the former mayor in conversation with Andrew Kelly, the former director of the Bristol Festival of Ideas.

Marvin Rees and Andrew Kelly discussed many of the issues raised in the former mayor’s memoir – photo: Seun Matiluko
Kelly and Rees spoke for around 45 minutes before taking questions from the audience.
The pair discussed why the book’s title became Let’s See What Happens (“I discovered, probably in my 30s, that that was a phrase I used repeatedly at critical moments “), the racism Rees experienced in the 70s (“I remember once it (the bus) took us to Banjo Island… we were terrified”), Rees’ mixed race identity (“even the other day, someone posted online, ‘well, he’s not really Black'”), the significance of Rees being Bristol’s first Black mayor and his strong Christian faith.
Rees praised former Labour councillor for Lawrence Hill, Marg Hickman, who encouraged him to run for mayor in the first place.
Kelly asked Rees about some of the high points of his mayoralty and Rees pointed to the number of homes built during his tenure; winning a bid for a Channel 4 creative hub, now in Finzels Reach; and Bristol City Leap, among others.

Let’s See What Happens has been described by broadcaster and historian David Olusoga as “a brutally honest account of power, politics race and class” – photo: Martin Booth
Kelly also asked Rees about the criticism he faced for flying to Vancouver to give a TED talk about climate change in 2012, which ultimately led to the mayor’s office disinviting BBC-funded local democracy reporters (LDRs) to press briefings.
On this, Rees said: “The point I made in the talk was tackling urbanisation is key to tackling climate change…
“I had gone to a forum where global thinking was being shaped and said you need cities shaping the global system. So, I tried to encourage a discussion of what was actually the substance of the talk.”
Rees said: “I’m just dismayed by the quality of public debate and commentary.
“I think it’s one of the biggest threats to our future because, the less we are able to have nuanced conversations about difficult decisions, we will not be in a position to make the big decisions that have to be met.”
He added: “Actually, there had been some consternation about the LDRs for some time because some people in the world of journalism were concerned this was public money being used to subsidise private newspapers and displacing what would be fully paid journalists.
“My understanding is that the NUJ (National Union of Journalists) had concerns about it when it first started.
“So, we didn’t stop journalists coming. We said, no, we want fully qualified, fully paid-up journalists to come to these sessions.
“And in all of those press conferences… when they ran out of questions I would say, ‘are you sure you have nothing else to ask me?’ And if you look at all the interviews, I say that every single time.”
Still, when asked about any regrets he had about his time as mayor, Rees did mention the contentious relationship he had with the local press.
Let’s See What Happens is published by Pan Macmillan and is available now in all good bookshops
Main photo: Bristol Ideas
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