'Windrush Songs' explores the different reasons James and his fellow travellers had for leaving the Caribbean. The poems look back on slavery and individual experiences of hardship and trying to make a living.

This volume looks at Britain since 1948 – the year when the Empire Windrush brought a group of 492 hopeful Caribbean immigrants to the United Kingdom. “Post-war Britain” may still be the most common label attached to studies in contemporary British history, but the contributors to this book believe that “post-Windrush Britain” has an explanatory power which is equally useful. The objective is to study the Windrush generation and Enoch Powell’s now infamous speech not only in their original historical context but also as a key element in the political, social and cultural make-up of today’s Britain. Contributions to the book use a diversity of approaches: from the lucid, forward-looking assessment by Trevor Phillips, which opens the volume; through Patrick Vernon’s account of the legacy of Powell’s speech in Birmingham and how it inspired him to launch a national campaign for Windrush Day; to the plea from novelist and playwright Chris Hannan for a fully inclusive, national conversation to help overturn deeply ingrained prejudice in all parts of our society.

In this heart-stopping adventure based on real historical events, Benjamin Zephaniah shows us an important and intriguing time in Britain that's sure to fascinate young readers.

These are the songs that we have listened to, laughed to, loved to and laboured to, as well as downed tools and danced to. Covering the last seven decades, Stuart Maconie looks at the songs that have sound tracked our changing times, and – just sometimes – changed the way we feel. Beginning with Vera Lynn’s ‘We’ll Meet Again’, a song that reassured a nation parted from their loved ones by the turmoil of war, and culminating with the manic energy of ‘Bonkers’, Dizzee Rascal’s anthem for the push and rush of the 21st century inner city, The People’s Songs takes a tour of our island’s pop music, and asks what it means to us. This is not a rock critique about the 50 greatest tracks ever recorded. Rather, it is a celebration of songs that tell us something about a changing Britain during the dramatic and kaleidoscopic period from the Second World War to the present day. Here are songs about work, war, class, leisure, race, family, drugs, sex, patriotism and more, recorded in times of prosperity or poverty. This is the music that inspired haircuts and dance crazes, but also protest and social change. The companion to Stuart Maconie’s landmark Radio 2 series, The People’s Songs shows us the power of ‘cheap’ pop music, one of Britain’s greatest exports. These are the songs we worked to and partied to, and grown up and grown old to – from ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ to ‘Rehab', ‘She Loves You’ to ‘Star Man’, ‘Dedicated Follower of Fashion’ to ‘Radio Ga Ga’.

The Museum’s Borders demonstrates that museum practices are deeply entangled in border making, patrol, mitigation and erasure, and that the border lens offers a new tool for deconstructing and reconfiguring such practices. Arguing that the museum is a critical institution for the operation of knowledge-based democracies, Knell investigates how they have been used by scientists, art historians and historians to construct our bordered world. Examining the role of museums in the Windrush scandal in Britain, the exclusion of Black artists in America, ideological and propaganda discourses in Europe and China, and the remembering of contested pasts in the Balkans, Knell argues for the importance of museums in countering unethical, nationalistic, post-fact political discourse. Using the principles of Knell’s ‘Contemporary Museology’, The Museum’s Borders considers the significance of the museum for societies that wish to know and remember in ways that empower citizens and build cohesive societies. The book will be of great interest to students and academics engaged in the study of museums and heritage, art history, science studies, cultural studies, anthropology, memory studies and history. It is required reading for museum professionals seeking to adopt non-discriminatory practices.

Introduces postcolonial literary studies through close readings of a wide range of fiction and poetryThis guide places the literary works themselves at the centre of its discussions, examining how writers from Africa, Australasia, the Caribbean, Canada, Ireland, and South Asia have engaged with the challenges that beset postcolonial societies. Dave Gunning discusses many of the most-studied works of postcolonial literature, from Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart to Salman Rushdies The Satanic Verses, as well as works by more recent writers like Chris Abani, Tahmima Anam and Shani Mootoo. Each chapter explores a key theme through drawing together works from various times and places. The book concludes with an extensive guide to further reading and tips on how to write about postcolonial literature successfully.Key FeaturesClose analysis of texts including, Sam Selvons The Lonely Londoners, J.M Coetzees Disgrace, Roddy Doyles A Star Called Henry, Shani Mootoos Cereus Blooms at Night, Tsitsi Dangarembgas Nervous Conditions, Zadie Smiths White Teeth, Mohsin Hamids The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Tahmima Anams A Golden Age, Michael Ondaatjes Anils Ghost, and Amitav Ghoshs In an Antique Land, as well as poetry by Derek Walcott, Eavan Boland, Agha Shahid Ali, Chris Abani and others.Discusses important new themes in postcolonial literature including global Islam, postcolonial sexualities and the representation of military conflict.Includes a Chronology, a Guide to Further Reading, and Tips on Writing about Postcolonial Literature.

Over 3,200 entries An essential guide to authors and their works that focuses on the general canon of British literature from the fifteenth century to the present. There is also some coverage of non-fiction such as biographies, memoirs, and science, as well as inclusion of major American and Commonwealth writers. This online-exclusive new edition adds 60,000 new words, including over 50 new entries dealing with authors who have risen to prominence in the last five years, as well as fully updating the entries that currently exist. Each entry provides details of a writer's nationality and birth/death dates, followed by a listing of their titles arranged chronologically by date of publication.

This book examines how mid-twentieth-century intellectuals' engagement with the Middle Ages shaped politics, art, and history.

EROS!! Do your thing! It's 1950s London, and Ferdy, Bernie, Dennis and Lennie arrive from the West Indies full of expectations and aspirations. Eager to make successes of themselves, they are optimistic about what the future holds. Building this new life will take focus and sacrifice, and the young men make the bold decision to forswear wine and women for three whole years and devote themselves to their future in London. However, Sybil, Mary, Zulieka and Kathy have other ideas and the men's resolve is put to the test as the reality of life in a less-than-welcoming England makes forgoing the warmth of female company hard to resist. Will the men stick with their idea of the Big Life, or will Eros have the final say? A joyful and uplifting journey, where the story of Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost meets that of the Windrush generation in a fun-packed Ska musical. The Big Life returns to the stage twenty years after its Stratford East premiere and subsequent West End transfer. This edition was published to coincide with the February 2024 production at London's Stratford East, presented in association with Chuchu Nwagu Productions Ltd.