London Calling: How Black and Asian Writers Imagined a City

by Sukhdev Sandhu

From the 11th-century, when one commentator claimed the capital was being overrun with Moors, to the garage MCs and street poets of today -- this book tells the story of life in London for black and Asian people from the 17th-century until today. 'London Calling' tells the story of black and Asian literary London, tracing the escapades, fortune making, and self-expansion of these forgotten writers. It is a joyful and often rapturous work, a love letter to the capital, a teeming and complex mix of social and cultural history seen through the imagination and experience of great black and Asian writers. 'London Calling' gets to the heart of the immigration impulse, and evokes the dreams and adventures of those who have sought refuge and asylum in the cradle of Empire. The book is populated by runaway slaves, lotharios, imams, boxer-pimps, rajahs and colonial revolutionaries, and discusses writers as diverse in style and time as the 18th-century grocer-aesthete Ignatius Sancho right through to Rushdie, Kureishi and yardie chronicler Victor Headley. The result is an exciting work, brimming with life, as it spotlights a rich but neglected literary tradition, and brings to life a gaping void in the city's history. Placing the multiculturalism of today's capital in its historical context, Sukhdev Sandhu shows that it is no new phenomenon, and that just as London has been the making of many black writers, they too have been the making of London.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, London

544 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2006

Reviews

[K.J. Charles]

A really interesting look at how black and Asian writers have written London through time. Spectacular depth and knowledge here showing the cultural and imaginative impact of BAME writers, from grubby firebrand radicals like the Spencean Wedderburn to visiting maharajahs, and then getting in depth on 20th century writers, both the big names and some I've never heard of.

Well written albeit in a modern-litcrit style (which is to say I had to look up quite a few words). NB the author uses slurs (not *as* slurs obviously) and includes writing about people of colour from many sources, some of which is horrifically, nauseatingly racist, so be aware.

Very much the sort of book that ends up full of highlighter, and I am now about to go on a shopping binge.

Also I'm just going to put this here for the "people of colour didn't exist in Regency England!!!" crowd, from Wordsworth's Prelude, section about London:

The begging scavenger, with hat in hand;
The Italian, as he thrids his way with care,
Steadying, far-seen, a frame of images
Upon his head; with basket at his breast
The Jew; the stately and slow-moving Turk,
With freight of slippers piled beneath his arm!

Enough;—the mighty concourse I surveyed
With no unthinking mind, well pleased to note
Among the crowd all specimens of man,
Through all the colours which the sun bestows,
And every character of form and face:
The Swede, the Russian; from the genial south,
The Frenchman and the Spaniard; from remote
America, the Hunter-Indian; Moors,
Malays, Lascars, the Tartar, the Chinese,
And Negro Ladies in white muslin gowns.

[Paolo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reads with the same passion and zest and daring of its subjects. 'London Calling' is the Tristram Shandy of litcrit!

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

This books deserves five stars for its bibliography alone. It's a very readable survey of black and Asian writing about London, and it introduced me to several new writers.

[Tom M (London) · Rating 5 out of 5]

"My goal is partly archaeological" writes Sukhdev Sandhu: "to uncover and expose the sheer variety of works about London that have been written since Ukawsaw Gronniosaw's slave autobiography in 1772".

Black and brown people have lived in London for hundreds of years, writing about the city as they see it (but oddly, perhaps, there's nothing here about the Chinese, who have been so influential over the same period. If there is a London Chinese literature, it isn't mentioned here).

This lively, erudite account continues from Gronniosaw all the way through the ensuing 200 years to the great West Indian writers of the 1950s like George Lamming and Sam Selvon and present day authors like Hanief Kureishi and Salman Rushdie.

Although many of these writers have experienced nothing in London but sad uprootedness, alienation, and anger, the Author stays resolutely upbeat and cheerful.

Far from being a dull academic study (although it has been compiled with academic rigour) this is written in original, snappy prose and is a delight to read. There's a comprehensive bibliography at the end.

[Peter Schmidt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good book. It's written in a lively, non-jargony style, using the vivid details and a novelist's eye for stories of a set of representative individuals' personal experiences. It develops sophisticated insights about patterns of discrimination and resistance to them, and has a broad historical scope (back to the 18th century and even earlier). It primarily works through anecdotes, rather than analytics, but this approach is refreshing, intelligent, and accessible to a wide range of readers. Further, the author's topic and approach are ignored by the vast majority of books about London history.

[Rajit · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fascinating when dealing with the early (pre-twentieth century) writers; less so when dealing with more modern and well-known figures.