Homecoming: Voices of the Windrush Generation

by Colin Grant

** A BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week**'Hopeful and angry, joyful and tear-jerking' Grazia'An extraordinary and compelling book' Daily Telegraph'Prickles with beautiful, comic and brutal details' Observer Homecoming draws on over a hundred first-hand interviews, archival recordings and memoirs by the women and men who came to Britain from the West Indies between the late 1940s and the early 1960s. In their own words, we witness the transition from the optimism of the first post-war arrivals to the race riots of the late 1950s. We hear from nurses in Manchester; bus drivers in Bristol; seamstresses in Birmingham; teachers in Croydon; dockers in Cardiff; inter-racial lovers in High Wycombe, and Carnival Queens in Leeds. These are stories of hope and regret, of triumphs and challenges, brimming with humour, anger and wisdom. Together, they reveal a rich tapestry of Caribbean British lives. Homecoming is an unforgettable portrait of a generation, which brilliantly illuminates an essential and much-misunderstood chapter of our history.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Race, Audiobook, Historical, Biography, British Literature

304 pages, Hardcover

Published October 3, 2019

About the author

The author of Negro with a Hat, a biography of Marcus Garvey, Colin Grant is an independent historian who works for BBC Radio. The son of Jamaican immigrants, he lives in London.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars rounded up
This is about the Windrush generation in Britain; those who came to Britain in the 1940s to 1960s. Grant has collected their views by doing interviews, accessing Mass Observation records and newspaper quotes and articles at the time. This generation are becoming older and an oral history of this kind is important in recording how those who came to Britain from the Caribbean were treated and how they made homes here. Grant is a radio producer, author, fellow at the Centre for Carribean Studies and has written other works about the Windrush generation and he marshals his facts well. There is a potted biography of all of those in the book (some with more details than others). The chapters are organised by themes which include arrivals, work, housing, carnival, daily life (including food), inter-racial relationships, the 1958 Notting Hill riots and so on. There are many recollections some of them heart-breaking and horrifying, some downright funny. The stories open a window onto aspects of British history which many would rather forget.
The interviewees are from all over the Caribbean, many arrived as children or young adults. The level of racism they experienced was high; being asked to leave a Church and not come back, not being allowed to have a bank account, struggling to find a room to rent, coping with a lot of outright hostility, the list is a long one. The separation of parents and children was one very difficult aspect that came out. Many children were left in the Caribbean with grandparents for some years and re-establishing family life was often difficult. Grant noted that there was a matter of factness in the descriptions of racism, a sense of “that’s the way it was”. He also noted that when he asked them to reflect more deeply on their experiences they often became emotional. It may be that some of the memories of how bad things were have been somewhat repressed. This leads to the danger that we begin to think “it wasn’t that bad” which is an easy get out for those in power and those who still have the long-established racist views prevalent in Britain.
Grant examines through the interviews the different strands of thought in the West Indian community with the “dreamers” and “realists” being two ways of looking at the move to Britain. He does deal a little with the recent Windrush scandal and the Circumlocution Office which is the Home Office, but maybe he could have added more detail about these events.
This is essential reading for those who wish to understand racism in British society. There are a few structural issues with the presentation (all the biographies are at the back), but these are minor issues. This is a must read.

[Ebony · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this in its entirety. It is rich with stories as told by those who lived them. Listening to the audiobook really worked well to instil the feeling of oral histories being passed on from those of the Windrush generation to their descendants. As a descendent myself, it reminded me of my family and the stories I have heard about the experience of travelling to Britain to begin a new life. Bravo to Colin Grant for providing a platform for sharing these experiences, allowing voices to be heard whilst capturing an important part of modern British history.

[Andreas]

‘Homecoming’ by Colin Grant is a wonderful addition to the books about the Windrush generation.

Grant presents an incredible array of sources including interviews, memoirs and other archival material. Reading the book, I felt that I really got to hear the people who are at the heart of the book telling their own stories in their own way. Grant managed to transport me to those pristine front rooms and it felt like I was sitting there and listening to these moving stories first-hand.

This book is important as a record of so much oral history but also as a really touching account of the dreams and disappointments, difficulties and successes of so many people. Highly recommended.

With thanks to the publisher for the digital review copy in exchange for my honest and unedited review.

[Eleanor · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5*

This book is full of pain, yes, but mostly full of joy. Stories of carving out a place for oneself and one's community in a setting which was unwelcoming. I thought the book was sectioned off in a way that made a complete story whilst also allowing for lots of different perspectives.

I only dock half a star because the nature of reading a book with lots of different perspectives makes the reading experience less of a flow, but that's a pretty minor point.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Windrush Generation are getting older and it's really important that their voices are heard and their stories are told. At a time when more and more people seem to want to rewrite or wipe out the past, recent history is every bit as important to set down as the older 'stuff' and one of Britain's most interesting 20th Century stories is that of the early waves of immigration from the Caribbean.

Colin Grant interviewed Caribbean immigrants - both adults and children at the time of their arrival - who left the sunshine of their island homes to help Britain rebuild after WW2 or to seek their fame and fortune across the ocean. Homecoming: Voices of the Windrush Generation gives them the chance to set down their stories.

Britain after the war was bleak, cold, and buzzing with resentment. Overt racism was everywhere. New arrivers were forced to take disgusting, run-down and over-priced lodgings with manipulative landlords because the mainstream landlords didn't want them in their properties.

We learn about the lands they left behind, the journeys they took, the hostility they encountered and the jobs that were blocked to them, the dance clubs and the fighting and the challenges of mixed-race relationships. Also, we read about the kids who were left behind in Jamaica and other islands who were 'sent for' years later, already alienated from their parents by the separation, and of the people who tried to go back 'home', only to find that places like Jamaica had become too dangerous for them.

Britain should be immensely proud of the Windrush Generation and this book gives us all a chance to know more about how they suffered and how they succeeded.

It's fair to say that I found the content very interesting so why only 3-stars? The structure just didn't work for me. There were so many people's stories but they just didn't knit together. I couldn't remember from one section (there weren't really chapters) to the next who was who and what had already happened. Perhaps my pre-publication ARC wasn't fully formatted for the Kindle, but the lack of structure - when did chapters start and finish? Were there even chapters - marred the book for me.

I received a free ebook from Netgalley and the publishers in return for an honest review.

[Denise Rearden · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book so interesting. The interviews give a great insight into how people who were invited to work in Britain were treated by some.
They had great resilience and kept their spirits up.
I am reading lots of books about this era now. It’s always great to learn recent history.

[Jenny Cooke (Bookish Shenanigans) · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of first hand account detailing everything from living in the West Indies to the voyage over to the racism experienced there and beyond.

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating book of interviews of men and women who came to Britain in the late 1940's to early 1960's from the West Indies - the Windrush generation.

As Commonwealth citizens, they came over to Britain as a way of improving their life chances and to make money. Many originally planned to go home after 5 or so years, but after living here for a few years, they ended up buying a house, getting married, having families, and settling down.

Taken directly from the individual accounts they talk about their family background; their education; why they decided to leave the West Indies; their experience on arrival; living here; working here; their experiences of racism; the race riots in the 1950's, and other topics.

Written in a chronological order rather than individual stories , you get to understand and see the similarities and differences experienced, because you get the same story about an event or experience from many viewpoints.

This book will make you laugh, make you cry, make you angry, and make you sad. Hopefully it will also make you understand the generation who travelled here, their reasons for coming and their reasons for staying.

Two points of interest for me: I didn't realise how many of them were educated - I made the erronous assumption that many were poor and uneducated, when in fact, many of them were educated to higher standards than working people of Britian were at the time. Nurses, engineers, teachers....it makes sense when you think about it: they were the people who could afford the cost of buying a ticket to travel. Not that they were allowed to work in those jobs when they came over, often having to take menial jobs and jobs on public transport for which they were over-qualified.

The other thing that came across clearly was how little bitterness they have towards the inherent racism that was prevalent in Britain at the time (and still is, in places).

This book is particularly pertinent and topical with the Windrush scandal, where men and women who thought they had a rightful place in British society, are being sent "home" to the West Indies - a place that many had left as children.

Highly recommended.

[Sarah Ensor · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant oral history of Caribbean migration to Britain in the 1940s, 50s, 60s and 70s.

For people arriving in the 1940s and 50s England was "damp, dirty and dark in July". The housing in war damaged towns with rubble-strewn streets was often filthy without bathrooms or indoor toilets. People coming from Kingston, Jamaica expected basic toilets in the countryside at home but they were used to modern facilities and had no idea Britain would be this primitive.

The interviewees are divided by class and luck. Some get relatively decent jobs but many are forced to work below their qualifications and experience by racism and bigotry. For some Britain is "an open prison" for others it raises opportunities but still at a high cost.

Some people experienced a welcome and say they barely felt the racism because of it. There are moving stories of the kindness of strangers and the parents of 'mixed' couples who didnt care that their daughter was marrying a black man. There are horrible experiences of lives crushed by bigotry.

The violence whipped up by Oswald Mosely and Enoch Powell is sickening but there's an inspiring interview with the ex-servicemen who knew how to defend their homes. With men on the roof, iron bars and molotov cocktails, who "gave Oswald Moseley and his teddy boys such a whipping". Self-defence is no offence.

The police who arrest and abuse the black people attacked by racists.

The superb Bristol bus boycott to destroy the colour bar and the shame of trade unionists hiding their racism behind "protecting members' pay".

The black and white mourners in solidarity against racist murders, the many mothers of Carnival and the Windrush scandal - it's all here.

Britain was built on immigration and each new wave has reinvigorated and renewed our culture. This book shows how painful that process can be for the immigrants. It also makes it clear that we have to take sides with migrants against the people who use racism to divide us.

[Rachel Matthews · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Homecoming, Colin Grant pulls together the voices of the Windrush generation - black Caribbean people who came to Britain in the 1950s/60s to help rebuild its economy after WW2. In this anthology of oral history, we read about the initial pride and excitement these black economic migrants felt in receiving a call from the motherland in her hour of need. However, as the chapters progress we realise that the reality of life in Britain for the Windrush generation could not be further from the dream they were fed. They were confronted with a Britain that didn't want them - quite literally there were signs on guest houses that openly declared they were not open to black people. Undeterred, the resilient Windrush generation created a place for themselves in England. Rather than go to the pubs that treated them like outcasts, they created drinking spots in their living rooms. Rather than be denied loans by banks that placed insurmountable barriers in their way, they pooled their money together so they could purchase properties.

The recent decision of the British government to deport dozens of Caribbean people who came to the UK as part of the Windrush generation shows that, even after contributing to the economy for decades, their value to the wider society is still in question. Reading Homecoming was sad in some ways because the people who came to Britain as part of the Windrush generation were left disillusioned; those who wanted to return home felt unable to do so since they knew they would be treated as foreigners in fact many of those who did return were robbed, even killed - punished for their perceived success. I think this book should be required reading in school particularly in England. There is so much here I never got to learn when I was in school and Grant has done us a great service by making this work available and ensuring these voices are not lost.

[Annabelle Romano · Rating 5 out of 5]

A phenomenal read about the stories and lives of West Indians coming to England and their feelings, thoughts, internal conflicts, joys and celebrations of their complex experiences straddling two worlds and cultures.

Listening to this in audiobook format whilst reading a physical copy gave the stories a real life dimension.

[Sophie (RedheadReading) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Would highly recommend the audiobook version of this as the oral storytelling aspect worked so well. A great insight into this generation told through a real range of perspectives and archive materials.

[Tony S · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a brilliant book. Looking at stories of people from their home town to the UK and in some cases back again. It was well written and having read The Housing Lark a few months earlier this helped to understand some of the issues mentioned in there or at least fleshed them out.
The book is so well written and it was good to look at the issues that lie behind many of the recent news stories and to get a really good insight into England at the time. A thoroughly recommended read.

[Andreas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Homecoming’ by Colin Grant is a wonderful addition to the books about the Windrush generation.

Grant presents an incredible array of sources including interviews, memoirs and other archival material. Reading the book, I felt that I really got to hear the people who are at the heart of the book telling their own stories in their own way. Grant managed to transport me to those pristine front rooms and it felt like I was sitting there and listening to these moving stories first-hand.

This book is important as a record of so much oral history but also as a really touching account of the dreams and disappointments, difficulties and successes of so many people who migrated to Britain. Highly recommended.

With thanks to the publisher for the digital review copy in exchange for my honest and unedited review.

[Vernon Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic account of the Windrush generation and these stories reflect my parents voices. Great work Colin and I look forward to reading more!

[safiyareads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Homecoming is primarily a record of oral history as told by the men and women who came to the UK from the West Indies between the late 1940s and early 1960s. It is made up of the accounts of first hand interviews as well as some archival records and memoirs.
I like how the book was organised in that it was set out chronologically from the journeys to England, the difficulties in getting accommodation and jobs, the racially motivated violence from the Teddy boys and so on. Small passages from different people would follow one another in relevance to the time or topic rather than having each individual account in full from beginning to end.
Oral history is so important and for the most part it is usually only shared with family and friends and the thing about it is that if it’s not recorded or shared then it’s lost forever. This collation of personal oral histories allows everyone to have access to these real lived experiences of an important part of West Indian and British history. It is these little anecdotal stories that truly indicate what it was like for these communities that aren’t reflected in the more impersonal side of history.
I loved the fact that a wide range of opinions, experiences and feelings were expressed throughout the individual stories. I felt that Grant did a great job of making sure he collated a variety and the outcome is that the book reflects the reality of nuanced experiences and that although there were a lot of similar situations, there were still many differences within these and the individuals were affected in contrasting ways.

A very valuable read which would add a lot to an understanding of the personal reality of what life was like in the first decades for the Windrush generation.

[Poppy Flaxman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to this on audible but that edition doesn't seem to be available on here at the moment. This was a brilliant collection of stories from the Windrush generation, beautifully edited together by Colin Grant. I learned so much whilst also genuinely enjoying the reading experience. I'd highly recommend checking out the audiobook as different people voice each story which I loved.

[Rose Wardlaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really comprehensive verbatim collection of accounts from people who experienced Windrush from a variety of perspectives.

I loved it. You can have as many academic explorations as you like but sometimes the clearest way of understanding a period and the experiences around it is just to hear the stories of those who lived through it. It's so well put together and will stay with me for a long time.

It's key reading for anyone looking to understand the roots of a key strand of racial politics in the UK.

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a really important book about a really important part of British history.

The reason I have only given 3 stars is I struggled with the format. It should have worked but there were just too many voices. I found I was flipping very quickly between some very short accounts and some just lacked depth. The most interesting and well written parts were the introduction to each chapter by the author.

[Ajay Sawant · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting book that gives a deep insight of British history though interviews and first hand tellings. It's interesting how people were lured for work and treated in totally opposite way to a guest.

Colin Grant gives a brief interviews of children and adult immigrants, the treatment, racism and the country crisis in the time

[Liz mogan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was very interesting and informative. I didn't really know a whole lot about the windrush generation and their struggles beforehand but this really explains it. Highly recommend

[✰matthew✰ · Rating 3 out of 5]

an important collection about something i’m trying to learn more about.

overall enjoyed but i just felt there was a bit too much repetition for me.

[SadieReadsAgain · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is both a time capsule and a statement very relevant to our world today. In this book, Grant has created an incredible patchwork of voices from the Windrush generation (and their children) which paints an insightful picture of their rich experiences. And in that, he turns the lens back on Britain and the wider West to our enduring attitudes towards colonialism and immigration.

Growing up near to London, I was used to seeing West Indian people as part of the community and as a child I don't think I ever wondered how they, or the Sikh and Hindu children also in my class had come to be in Britain. It's only in recent years that I've become aware that many of these families didn't just move here randomly, or on the off-chance that things might be better here. The immigration of different cultures, particularly that following the second world war, was based on the influence of colonialism, of the propaganda of Britain as the place to be that was fed to other countries of the Empire, of the promises fed to populations which the Empire exploited. Promises which many found were hollow only once they'd given up all they had, left their homes and loved ones, and made the difficult passage to our supposedly superior shores. As detailed in the first-hand oral histories in this book, the experience was often one of prejudice, isolation and employment inequalities that often made it impossible for people to afford the life promised to them or to return to their homes once reality bit. West Indian people were treated appallingly by a population that was unprepared to accept racial and cultural differences, and a government which backtracked on it's word.

That would lead you to expect a very gloomy book. But this is anything but. What shines through is the spirit of the Windrush generation - perseverance, optimism and joy. Despite the unfair odds stacked against them, this brave generation found a way to exist. Whether that was their ingenious way of getting around the barrier to property ownership, the strength they showed in boycotting prejudice employers, bringing what they could of home into the culture, or simply making the best of a bad situation, many of the people featured in this book were able to settle and reclaim some of those promises to make a good life here. I adored the way this book was told, and could have read many, many more accounts of what it was like to be part of the Windrush generation.

Grant doesn't get into a lot of depth of the political scandal which really brought this generation to the fore in the past decade, with the Hostile Environment policy and stamping many with illegal immigrant status. It is discussed, and there are voices of those who were effectively expelled from the county under this disgraceful approach. But the focus is very much on their lives - those they left behind (and I gained so much in reading about the West Indies under colonial rule from this book), those they found themselves in, and those they managed to build despite the odds. And from this, we Westerners can really learn a lot about the courage and stamina that immigrants have and the richness that opening our borders, minds and hearts to others can bring. At the same time, it really does throw into sharp focus the disgusting way that still, today, people are treated, and should serve as a learning opportunity on how to treat everyone, anyone with humanity.


I was sent a Netgalley of this title by Random House UK in return for a review. All opinions are my own.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Homecoming, Colin Grant presents excerpts from oral history interviews with members of the Windrush generation - West Indian people who came over to Britain from the late 1940s to the early 1960s seeking better opportunities than were available on the islands. It covers their experiences over 60+ years, from what the West Indies were like in the 1940s, to interviewees’ reactions to the 2018 Windrush scandal.

Grant states an aim to cover a huge breadth of experiences, and he certainly achieves it. While this mass migration is heavily associated in the public imagination with Jamaica and one ship, the Windrush, his interviewees travelled from all over the West Indies, with a particularly strong representation from Guyana, and came over on various ships at different times, heading to a number of towns and cities on arrival. They recount both welcoming and hostile reactions, pleasant and unpleasant times in their lives, successes and failures.

What really struck me was how the interviewees seemed to talk about their experiences of racism in such a matter-of-fact, ‘that’s just how it was’ way. Grant picks up on this, discussing how the interviewees’ present-day dismissiveness of these experiences contrasts with how much they hurt at the time, and how they got more emotional when he drew them to reflect more deeply. It has interesting implications for life story and memory studies; if people repress and pass over their memories of racism when recounting their experiences from years ago, are we in danger of getting the impression that it wasn’t that bad, and the adversity wasn’t that hard to overcome?

The overall narrative, as directed by the interviewees, is certainly one of triumph. They talk about finding their feet despite arriving in Britain with no plan and nowhere to go, introducing carnival (and, with it, much-needed colour and sound) as a reaction against racist rioting, winning at cricket, buying houses by setting up ‘pardner’ schemes among themselves after being rejected by the banks, and marrying white partners despite family opposition, sometimes on both sides - but, of course, they shouldn’t have had to face any of these trials in the first place.

There are nonetheless some stories that don’t have happy endings. I was particularly moved by the accounts of parents who left their children in the Caribbean and sent for them when they were settled - only to find that they no longer knew one another, and that the children missed the relatives who brought them up and felt supplanted by siblings who had been born in Britain.

I was also really interested to read about what life was like in the Caribbean in the 1940s, and what it’s like now. I had some previous idea about the imposition of British culture by colonisers in the West Indies, but I didn’t realise quite how extensive it was. I was also shocked to read about the experiences of people who have moved back; being rich by Caribbean standards, many become prisoners in their own homes because they’re so likely to fall victim to crime. To be wrongfully deported to a country you’ve never lived in, or haven’t lived in for decades, doesn’t just mean losing everything you’ve ever known, but it also puts you at risk of violence.

Homecoming contains a wide range of fascinating accounts from the Windrush generation that really made me think about the nature of memory and narrative.

[Nyasha Tarlia · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Until the Lions have their own historians then the hunt will always glorify the hunter”

Homecoming by Colin Grant —- Homecoming draws on over a hundred first-hand interviews, archival recordings and memoirs by the voices of the Windrush who came to Britain from the West Indies between the late 1940s and the early 1960s.

“what has been lost by leaving the islands, what emotional while had been traded for small gains of financial security – the absence of sunlight and warmth.” (P.g. 2)

I loved this book, hearing the voices of the Windrush generation, what they have lived through, how they have overcome. It’s so captivity; angering; inspirational and beautiful.

However, many people never felt welcomed in Britain, and, although they had been raised in the Caribbean to believe they were British, once on British soil, the British went out their way to remind them they were not the same.

“on setting out from their British colonies in the Caribbean to come ‘home’ to Britain in the 1950s and 1960s, they never felt that they’d fully arrived”

Some of the stories highlight how the English infiltrated and took over the Caribbean educational system. They did British exams, learnt British history. They had to speak correct English first and patois second. Some stories spoke about how the high government officials were all English, the head of the police, and any jobs that and were in control of rubbish the countries were all British. “we were indoctrinated into feeling that Britain was ‘the place’”.

Some stories highlight how hard it was for them to get a job, despite being overqualified, how hard it was to get housing and the use of the pardna system to save and buy houses. Some stories talk about the pain of having to leave children behind to make money in the UK.

“Many of my countrymen have already given up all hope… And are doing unskilled jobs to save up the passage money to go back home”

Overall, these are stories of how the wind was generation, persevered and survived. Hearing firsthand accounts of the Windrush generation has reinforced why I’m so proud to be of Jamaican decent.

“When people asked me where I was from…. I’d say British by birth but Jamaican by will and inclination” (p.g.1)

The Windrush generation are getting older and their voices and stories need to be heard. Colin Grant has done an excellent job, giving them a chance for their voices to be heard.

Excellent book, I enjoyed every moment off it.

[Hayley (Shelflyfe) · Rating 4 out of 5]

'In this book there are many lions and lionesses, and they are all telling their stories and unashamedly 'chatting their business.''
~
I found this to be a very insightful and important collection of accounts, collated and smoothly presented by Grant.
~
The flow of the stories, from initially travelling to Britain, the changes and challenges the individuals faced, and ending on the Windrush scandal, depicts the journey of each life in an interesting way, and the different voices kept my engagement.
~
'These were young and dynamic adventurers... they succumbed to the urge to leave. They called it 'England Fever'... So many were 'gone to foreign' that a joke quickly emerged and was heard throughout the region: 'Will the last person out please turn off all the lights?''
~
The separation of families in an endeavour to make a better life in Britain felt particularly challenging. For both generations (parents and children) sacrifices were made.
~
'I was told that, if you walk in fear, fear follows you. I fear nothing, I don't go with fear in my heart.'
~
The depiction of the poor treatment these individuals faced, as well as the joyful focus of living life and making the best of things, shines through in their overall joy for life.
The stories of their experiences are important, and while things seem to not be as overtly racist today, it is clear that so much more still needs to change.
~
'I felt extremely angry about Windrush scandal... How can that be done to people who've been living here all along?'
~
The stories spanning the generations of families impacted by the Windrush reflect the parallels and differences between the older and younger family members, highlighting the changing views and attitudes, in the same way as for any other families.
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'The market, I'm thinking with hindsight, was a really buzzing hive of cultural activity but, coming from a ten-year-old's perspective on a Saturday morning, it was a pain in the arse and you couldn't wait to get home to watch TV.'
~
Overall I'd absolutely recommend this book. I think it is really important that these stories are shared and heard, and that they continue to be amplified and acted upon.
I'd recommend it to anyone to read.
~
'And so what more was there to discuss? 'Argument done,' as Jamaicans say.'

[Catalina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I totally loved the content but really disliked the form.

This is the type of book I want to read to better understand both the people and the historical events. Authentic voices of those directly involved in the migration waves from the East Indies, talking about their experiences, both negative and positive, paints a truly realistic picture that I very much want to learn about.

I really cannot put into words how much I've enjoyed(even if enjoyed is not always the proper word to use, especially when one reads about all the difficulties they had to deal with) the voices featured in this book. They are so real and so powerful; motivational really. Despite all the barriers raised by the society they were trying to be a part of, they always found a way to achieve their dreams. They got together to fight the beast that was the English society at the time. The got together to help each other overcome not only external difficulties, but also the grief left behind when they sailed for England. I was particular touched by their feelings of being trapped between 2 worlds: not really belonging in their new country, but neither being part of their native lands anymore. I've observed this time and time again in the East European migrants and I am now convinced it is actually a characteristic of economical migration. I find it's really heartbreaking and in fact a limitation of open border ideology. I very much believed in open borders, but as time has passed and I've been witnessing to much suffering, my belief in migration as a solution to world poverty has started to falter. I also loved their honesty. They were not afraid to say how little regard they had for the English, with their weakness and lack of style. Also interesting to see that the mixing between blacks and whites was frown upon by both parties, and especially worrying how mixed race children weren't truly accepted by either. Of and the parties....my gosh...it must have been hell to live next door to one of the houses hosting the blues.

As for the form....there where a few things that I hope have been improved/fixed in the final version of the book(I've read an advance copy) - at times there was no delimitation between the author's thoughts and the interviewees. The content seems to be split in sections but once again there is no clear demarcation between them (once I got to the noted this sections seemed to even have titles, but they were missing in the body of the book, so hopefully this was edited before publication.). But in my view the biggest issues was the splitting of the voices/interviews. So the interviews have been split and arranged to build up this sections I was mentioning before. That's not intrinsically a problem, as it does work overall, but what happens is that the reader fails to remember the characters. Fails to engage at the deeper level, fails to develop connections and feelings for particular persons. I would have liked to read entire stories, to be able to remember some of this people by name, to be able to connect their names and stories. As it is, it's almost impossible. As I was reading, I managed to recognize a few names, but I couldn't really remember much about their own stories, as their lines have been split in such a way that one needed an exceptional memory to keep track of all the voices.

*Book from NetGalley with many thanks to the publisher.

[Sere · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the two decades after the 1948 British Nationality Act (which defined British nationality by creating the status of "Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies" as the sole national citizenship of the United Kingdom and all of its colonies), more than 300,000 people from the "Dominions and Colonies" of Britain took up the opportunity to book a passage to the UK and settle in. Jamaicans constituted the biggest group (over 75% of this immigration wave).

The Windrush was one such boat used by Caribbean people to move to the UK and gave the name to a whole generation, to this book and to a more recent scandal.

The book unfolds through interview snippets of the people involved in this chunk of history. However, is not a history book, it's a collection of individual experiences.
It's the story of the coloured people of this country, told by coloured people, interviewed by a coloured author (I emphasise this because I believe it is an important distinction, a positive one to make).

The story starts from the influence of England in its Caribbean colonies, moves into the decision to leave, finding the money to move, the boat transfer, the initial impact upon arrival, life in the UK (underwhelming for most), racism and teddy boys, the August uprisings in Notting Hill, the institution of the Notting Hill Carnival, cricket rivalries, staying in the UK or going back.

It also touches on the more recent Windrush Scandal (from wikipedia...a British political scandal that began in 2018 concerning people who were wrongly detained, denied legal rights, threatened with deportation, and in at least 83 cases wrongly deported from the UK by the Home Office).

If you live in the UK (London especially) I think you should read it. It provides some context and depth to heaps of things that would otherwise go unnoticed.

[Amanda Rosso · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thorough and heartfelt exploration of West Indian people's lives in England, their struggle, their bravery, their community and their ability to built a home in a country where they soon found out there are no roads paved with gold.

Grant is able to collect an incredible amount of testimonies and stories that are foundational and impressive, funny and sad, melancholic and ironic. From the so called 'Windrush Generation' onwards, men and women left their homes to follow the dream of the Motherland. In the UK they found racism, poverty, exploitation and bland food, but they were somehow able to build not only community and prosperity, but change forever the make-up of an entire country. Great Britain will never be the same after that, and West Indians have contributed in so many ways to UK's culture and heritage, and in spite of the unwelcoming climate (both climatic and social) they built lives for themselves and their children.

Among shebeens, cricket, overt racism, language, home parties and personal and collective traumas, Colin Grant depicts and unforgettable picture of life in England throughout the second part of the XX century.

[Effy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I went into this book with very little information about Windrush so I felt that I was missing a lot of context for the stories in this book. This is very much a me problem as I think I misunderstood the aims of this book and thought that I would get a look into what Windrush was and accounts of those who were part of the WIndrush generation; we definitely got the latter but the former was largely missing. This is an excellently crafted book which gives accounts chronological of the experiences of people in the West Indies prior to moving to "the mother country", the confusion they felt at the mistreatment they experienced whilst here, and experiences of life in the West Indies after years in England.

I enjoyed hearing the stories of all of the people in this book with paints such a rich tapestry of life whilst never shying away from the disgusting way that the English government and the English people treated them. There is a feeling of optimism in a lot of accounts but there is clearly a lot of pain too.