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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

Black Britain - literature & memoirs

11:33 / 25.08.05

I've been looking for a book for my sisters birthday recently, and in the wake of Andrea Levy's Small Islanddecided to try and find something related to Black Britain, as we're of mixed parentage. At a time when there's lots of biographies of the white working class, lots of East End memoirs etc., I was surprised to find next to nothing about the black british experience on the bookshelves. This says something about the construction of history to me, and who has access to disseminating their version of it through the written word.

I wondered if anyone can provide me with any titles or pointers in this direction? I'm particulary interested in memoirs but I'd like to include fiction in this, as this might throw up some interesting titles - providing they're black-written, and deal with the post war period (i.e.) when most immigration took place). I have a few titles to add, but I'll restrain myself for now.

Tryphena Absent

00:44 / 26.08.05

In response to this thread I looked black british history up on Amazon and the non-fiction that I found was all linked to Windrush or the history of slavery. When I clicked on this book I did find some other links. However the original list quickly devolved into books that were related to the word black in some way: the name of the author for example. I was surprised by the limited number of books that seemed to be available but moreso by the results that Amazon turned up.

Ex

10:17 / 26.08.05

I'm trying to find a recently published memoir (this or last year) about growing up in care by a black British woman, but everything is stubborn and I can't recall the title.

In the meantime, Jackie Kaye's 'The Adoption Papers' (Bloodaxe) is an autobiographical poetry anthology and it's great. Kaye's mixed parentage and was adopted by white parents in Scotland. It's told in different voices, and it's full of striking moments - her adoptive mother trying to de-politicise the flat when the adoption worker visits is hysterical. Other parts are painful - the fact that the parents, having been told there aren't any suitable children for them to adopt, think to turn at the door of the agency and say, 'You know, we don't mind what colour...' - and the agency pull out a whole different folder.

13:03 / 26.08.05

Thanks for the links, both of you.

I was surprised by the limited number of books that seemed to be available

Yeah, me as well. Almost no representation whatsoever. Mike Philips has written a memoir as well (I've met him actually, he used be a trustee at my old place of work).

The only other one that sprung to mind is Sam Selvon's The Lonely Londoners, which is great. It's a novelisations of the authors experience as a West Indian immigrant in the 1950s. I recall it mentioning things like the shock of the cold, the food, encounters with racism and the closeness of the immigrant community so on. The 50s were a bloody long time ago though, adn you'd think there would be a few more books in the lkast fifty years.

I suppose there's a case to be made that most cultural production by Black britons has took place in fields other than literature for a variety of reasons. Please post more writers as they come up.

One of the issues this brings up for me is that we're probably at a point in time where the first generation of black immigrants are dying, or moving back home, so it becomes more urgent to record their stories.

A bit of ferreting on Amazon has brought up a few more names, will investigate and stick 'em down.

13:05 / 26.08.05

Oh, and Ex, I will defintely check out that Jackie Kaye book - sounds fascinating.

Goodness Gracious Meme

14:03 / 26.08.05

A few useful links/orgs to talk to.

I'm not sure if Index Books in Brixton is stil going.

Also, have a chat to the Black Cultural Archive people: 378 Coldharbour Lane, Brixton, London SW9 8LF, Tel 020 7737 2770.

General interest: Blackbritain.

14:52 / 26.08.05

I've read the Windrush book a few years ago when i was involved in a short lived dance/magazine/music project based on Windrush Sq in Brixton. Really interesting stuff. I'll pass a copy onto you if you want illmatic though it's proberbly too grubby for a present. I'd get in touch with the person i was working with on the project as i know she did loads of reseach but she's in america at the moment.As GGM say, the Black Cultural Archive people in Brixton will be tons of help i imagine.

15:34 / 26.08.05

'based on Windrush Sq'

That should read based on the Windrush not the Square of course. God, i'd fogotten about that project until this thread. I'm so glad it never happned, it would have been terrible. Can you imagine a contempry dance performane in Windrush Square!

ONLY NICE THINGS

11:55 / 27.08.05

IC3, a collection of black (British) writing, has a whole section about first-generation immigrants - some of these are self-contained pieces, but others are, IIRC, taken from larger works - will have a look. Interestingly, quite a few pieces seemed, again working from memory, to be fictionalised autobiogrpahy - maybe a distancing mechanism?

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

15:04 / 13.09.05

You might like Ekow Eshun's book 'Black Gold of the Sun', Mr. Matic.

I reviewd it for a mates website, got a signed copy off the man himself. It's quite personal, a sort of secret diary/personal/societal history travelogue detailing the author's search for identity growing up in Blighty after the coup in Ghana, and his eventual return there discovering his and his people's history...

It's pretty good, very readable.

Ex

09:56 / 14.09.05

Hannah Pool's My Father's Daughter is out, recenntly. It's an autobiography- Pool was adopted from Eritrea and assumed her family had died, but was later contacted by her brother.

I forgot to mention it earlier as I'd read a lukewarm review which implied that as a cosmetics journalist, her prose style just wasn't up to conveying the enormity of her experience - she uses phrases like 'I was really gutted'. But I've just realised that's rather an interesting value judgement in itself - if you have these intense experiences about your cultural identity, you're supposed to turn to the language of literary biography, not everyday life, to convey them.