The UK’s first black female bishop has always been a fearless defender of people’s rights, from Montego Bay to the streets of Dover, as she recalls in her memoir published next month

She is about as far from the stereotype of a Church of England bishop as you can get: black, female, fearless. She was born and raised in poverty in Jamaica, deprived of parental love, beaten and abused as a youngster, yet Bishop Rose Hudson-Wilkin radiates warmth and joy as she opens a pile of Christmas cards in her office at Canterbury cathedral.

The card she sent this year depicted a black Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus in a refugee tent on a hillside. It is a message that came straight from her heart. As bishop of Dover, the issue of migration – whether it is people fleeing war, persecution or economic hardship – is always near the top of her in-tray.