By Cathy Myers
To Celebrate Thirty Years of Black History Month, we present 30 BAME Writers whose work you can borrow from Lewisham Library and Information Service.
Who would you have on your list?
Our fearless heroine Billy is back!
Whilst at a fancy-dress party, something terrible happens: Billy's loyal sidekick Fatcat is kidnapped by a fire-breathing dragon. Uh-oh!
But luckily for Fatcat, Billy won't stand for that: off she goes on a brave rescue mission...
Dave has a wobbly tooth. He wibbles and wobbles it, but it won't come out. But then one day Dave lets out an enormous sneeze and the tooth flies across the room and vanishes.
Dave searches high and low, but it's nowhere to be seen. How will he get the tooth fairy to visit him now? A heartwarming picture book with a unique spin on the tooth fairy tradition.
Though she died penniless and forgotten, Zora Neale Hurston is now recognized as a major figure in African American literature. Best known for her 1937 novel, ""Their Eyes Were Watching God"", she also published numerous short stories and essays, three other novels, and two books on black folklore.Even avid readers of Hurston's prose, however, may be surprised to know that she was also a serious and ambitious playwright throughout her career. Although several of her plays were produced during her lifetime - and some to public acclaim - they have languished in obscurity for years. Even now, most critics and historians gloss over these texts, treating them as supplementary material for understanding her novels. Yet, Hurston's dramatic works stand on their own merits and independently of her fiction.Now, eleven of these forgotten dramatic writings are being published together for the first time in this carefully edited and annotated volume. Filled with lively characters, vibrant images of rural and city life, biblical and folk tales, voodoo, and, most importantly, the blues, readers will discover a ""real Negro theater"" that embraces all the richness of black life.
Both devastating and funny, The Lonely Londoners is an unforgettable account of immigrant experience - and one of the great twentieth-century London novels. This Penguin Modern Classics edition includes an introduction by Susheila Nasta.
At Waterloo Station, hopeful new arrivals from the West Indies step off the boat train, ready to start afresh in 1950s London. There, homesick Moses Aloetta, who has already lived in the city for years, meets Henry 'Sir Galahad' Oliver and shows him the ropes. In this strange, cold and foggy city where the natives can be less than friendly at the sight of a black face, has Galahad met his Waterloo? But the irrepressible newcomer cannot be cast down. He and all the other lonely new Londoners - from shiftless Cap to Tolroy, whose family has descended on him from Jamaica - must try to create a new life for themselves. As pessimistic 'old veteran' Moses watches their attempts, they gradually learn to survive and come to love the heady excitements of London.
Sam Selvon (b. 1923) was born in San Fernando, Trinidad. In 1950 Selvon left Trinidad for the UK where after hard times of survival he established himself as a writer with A Brighter Sun (1952), An Island is a World (1955), The Lonely Londoners (1956), Ways of Sunlight (1957), Turn Again Tiger (1958), I Hear Thunder (1963), The Housing Lark (1965), The Plains of Caroni (1970), Moses Ascending (1975) and Moses Migrating (1983).
Octavia E. Butler's masterpiece and ground-breaking exploration of power and responsibility, for fans of The Handmaid's Tale, The Power and Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing.
With an original foreword by Ayòbámi Adébáyò. '[Her] evocative, often troubling, novels explore far-reaching issues of race, sex, power and, ultimately, what it means to be human' New York Times 'No novel I've read this year has felt as relevant, as gut-wrenching or as essential' The Pool In 1976, Dana dreams of being a writer.
In 1815, she is assumed a slave.When Dana first meets Rufus on a Maryland plantation, he's drowning. She saves his life - and it will happen again and again.Neither of them understands his power to summon her whenever his life is threatened, nor the significance of the ties that bind them.And each time Dana saves him, the more aware she is that her own life might be over before it's even begun.
Octavia E. Butler's ground-breaking masterpiece is the extraordinary story of two people bound by blood, separated by so much more than time.
To Celebrate Thirty Years of Black History Month, we present 30 BAME Writers whose work you can borrow from Lewisham Library and Information Service.
Who would you have on your list?
1
Alice Walker
Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 'The Color Purple', is one of America's major and most prolific writers. She is also among its most controversial. How has Walker's work developed over the last forty years? Why has it often provoked extreme reactions? Does Walker's cultural, political and spiritual activism enhance or distort her fiction? Where does she belong in the evolving tradition of African American literature?
'Alice Walker, second edition':
* examines the full range of Walker's prose writings: her novels, short stories, essays, activist writings, speeches and memoirs
* has been thoroughly revised in the light of the latest scholarship and critical developments
* brings coverage of Walker's work right up to date with a new chapter on 'Now is the Time to Open Your Heart' (2004), and discussion of her recent non-fictional writing, including 'Overcoming Speechlessness' (2010)
* traces Walker's lineage back to nineteenth-century visionary black women preachers and activists
* assesses Walkers prose oeuvre both in terms of its literary and its activist merits and shortcomings.
Ideal for students and scholars alike, this established text remains an essential guide to the work of a key US author as it explains her unique place in contemporary American letters.
Alice Walker
Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 'The Color Purple', is one of America's major and most prolific writers. She is also among its most controversial. How has Walker's work developed over the last forty years? Why has it often provoked extreme reactions? Does Walker's cultural, political and spiritual activism enhance or distort her fiction? Where does she belong in the evolving tradition of African American literature?
'Alice Walker, second edition':
* examines the full range of Walker's prose writings: her novels, short stories, essays, activist writings, speeches and memoirs
* has been thoroughly revised in the light of the latest scholarship and critical developments
* brings coverage of Walker's work right up to date with a new chapter on 'Now is the Time to Open Your Heart' (2004), and discussion of her recent non-fictional writing, including 'Overcoming Speechlessness' (2010)
* traces Walker's lineage back to nineteenth-century visionary black women preachers and activists
* assesses Walkers prose oeuvre both in terms of its literary and its activist merits and shortcomings.
Ideal for students and scholars alike, this established text remains an essential guide to the work of a key US author as it explains her unique place in contemporary American letters.
2
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou, 2008 .
Now the basis of a major Radio 4 drama, Maya Angelou's debut memoir paints a portrait of 'a brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman' (Barack Obama)
Maya Angelou's debut memoir has become an classic beloved worldwide. Her six volumes of autobiography are a testament to the her talents and resilience.. Loving the world, she also knows its cruelty. As a Black woman she has known discrimination and extreme poverty, but also hope, joy, achievement and celebration. In this first volume of her six books of autobiography, Maya Angelou beautifully evokes her childhood with her grandmother in the American south of the 1930s. She learns the power of the white folks at the other end of town and suffers the terrible trauma of rape by her mother's lover. However, far from being dispiriting, James Baldwin writes, 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings liberates the reader into life simply because Maya Angelou confronts her own life with such a moving wonder, such a luminous dignity.'
'I write about being a Black American woman, however, I am always talking about what it's like to be a human being. This is how we are, what makes us laugh, and this is how we fall and how we somehow, amazingly, stand up again' Maya Angelou
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou, 2008 .
Now the basis of a major Radio 4 drama, Maya Angelou's debut memoir paints a portrait of 'a brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman' (Barack Obama)
Maya Angelou's debut memoir has become an classic beloved worldwide. Her six volumes of autobiography are a testament to the her talents and resilience.. Loving the world, she also knows its cruelty. As a Black woman she has known discrimination and extreme poverty, but also hope, joy, achievement and celebration. In this first volume of her six books of autobiography, Maya Angelou beautifully evokes her childhood with her grandmother in the American south of the 1930s. She learns the power of the white folks at the other end of town and suffers the terrible trauma of rape by her mother's lover. However, far from being dispiriting, James Baldwin writes, 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings liberates the reader into life simply because Maya Angelou confronts her own life with such a moving wonder, such a luminous dignity.'
'I write about being a Black American woman, however, I am always talking about what it's like to be a human being. This is how we are, what makes us laugh, and this is how we fall and how we somehow, amazingly, stand up again' Maya Angelou
3
How to be Both
By Ali Smith, 2014.
This is a novel all about art's versatility. Borrowing from painting's fresco technique to make an original literary double-take, it's a fast-moving genre-bending conversation between forms, times, truths, and fictions. There's a renaissance artist of the 1460s. There's the child of a child of the 1960s. Two tales of love and injustice twist into a singular yarn where time gets timeless, structural gets playful, knowing gets mysterious, fictional gets real - and all life's givens get given a second chance.
How to be Both
By Ali Smith, 2014.
This is a novel all about art's versatility. Borrowing from painting's fresco technique to make an original literary double-take, it's a fast-moving genre-bending conversation between forms, times, truths, and fictions. There's a renaissance artist of the 1460s. There's the child of a child of the 1960s. Two tales of love and injustice twist into a singular yarn where time gets timeless, structural gets playful, knowing gets mysterious, fictional gets real - and all life's givens get given a second chance.
4
The life and rhymes of Benjamin Zephaniah : the autobiography
By Zephaniah, Benjamin, 2019.
Benjamin Zephaniah, who has travelled the world for his art and his humanitarianism, now tells the one story that encompasses it all: the story of his life.
In the early 1980s when punks and Rastas were on the streets protesting about unemployment, homelessness and the National Front, Benjamin's poetry could be heard at demonstrations, outside police stations and on the dance floor. His mission was to take poetry everywhere, and to popularise it by reaching people who didn't read books. His poetry was political, musical, radical and relevant.
By the early 1990s, Benjamin had performed on every continent in the world (a feat which he achieved in only one year) and he hasn't stopped performing and touring since. Nelson Mandela, after hearing Benjamin's tribute to him while he was in prison, requested an introduction to the poet that grew into a lifelong relationship, inspiring Benjamin's work with children in South Africa. Benjamin would also go on to be the first artist to record with The Wailers after the death of Bob Marley in a musical tribute to Nelson Mandela.
The Life and Rhymes of Benjamin Zephaniah is a truly extraordinary life story which celebrates the power of poetry and the importance of pushing boundaries with the arts.
The life and rhymes of Benjamin Zephaniah : the autobiography
By Zephaniah, Benjamin, 2019.
Benjamin Zephaniah, who has travelled the world for his art and his humanitarianism, now tells the one story that encompasses it all: the story of his life.
In the early 1980s when punks and Rastas were on the streets protesting about unemployment, homelessness and the National Front, Benjamin's poetry could be heard at demonstrations, outside police stations and on the dance floor. His mission was to take poetry everywhere, and to popularise it by reaching people who didn't read books. His poetry was political, musical, radical and relevant.
By the early 1990s, Benjamin had performed on every continent in the world (a feat which he achieved in only one year) and he hasn't stopped performing and touring since. Nelson Mandela, after hearing Benjamin's tribute to him while he was in prison, requested an introduction to the poet that grew into a lifelong relationship, inspiring Benjamin's work with children in South Africa. Benjamin would also go on to be the first artist to record with The Wailers after the death of Bob Marley in a musical tribute to Nelson Mandela.
The Life and Rhymes of Benjamin Zephaniah is a truly extraordinary life story which celebrates the power of poetry and the importance of pushing boundaries with the arts.
Copies
Overdrive - Benjamin Zephaniah
OverDrive eAudio - Benjamin Zephaniah
Search the Library Catalogue
Overdrive - Benjamin Zephaniah
OverDrive eAudio - Benjamin Zephaniah
Search the Library Catalogue
5
The wormholers
By Jamila Gavin, 1996.
This is a science fiction adventure story, in which Chad sees a huge crack open up in his bedroom floor. Irritated by his step-sister Natalie, he allows her to fall into it. Then, desperate to bring her back, he seeks Sophie's help.
The wormholers
By Jamila Gavin, 1996.
This is a science fiction adventure story, in which Chad sees a huge crack open up in his bedroom floor. Irritated by his step-sister Natalie, he allows her to fall into it. Then, desperate to bring her back, he seeks Sophie's help.
Copies
Search the Library Catalogue
Search the Library Catalogue
6
Grace Nichols
By Sarah Lawson Welsh, 2010.
This first full-length study of Grace Nichols's work argues that, rather than exploring the tension between its 'Caribbeaness' and 'Britishness', it is more productively read in terms of a series of border crossings. Nichols's major female protagonists are seen as epic journeyers travelling across different cultural and psychic landscapes. It shows how her poetry explores the boundaries of race, class and gender as part of the lived experience of being a black woman in Britain and the study focuses on the specifics of black British women's writing, different feminist reading strategies, rewriting history and revisioning myth in Nichols's poetry and the nature of diaspora, cultural hybridity and the complex meaning of 'home' for the migrant writer.
Grace Nichols
By Sarah Lawson Welsh, 2010.
This first full-length study of Grace Nichols's work argues that, rather than exploring the tension between its 'Caribbeaness' and 'Britishness', it is more productively read in terms of a series of border crossings. Nichols's major female protagonists are seen as epic journeyers travelling across different cultural and psychic landscapes. It shows how her poetry explores the boundaries of race, class and gender as part of the lived experience of being a black woman in Britain and the study focuses on the specifics of black British women's writing, different feminist reading strategies, rewriting history and revisioning myth in Nichols's poetry and the nature of diaspora, cultural hybridity and the complex meaning of 'home' for the migrant writer.
Copies
Search the Library Catalogue
Search the Library Catalogue
7
Them and us
By Bali Rai, 2009.
When David and his mother move to a predominantly Asian part of town to escape his abusive dad, he braces himself for starting at another new school. He makes a couple of friends, but finds himself the victim of racist bullies who hate him because he's white. On top of that, it looks like his dad might have figured out where he lives.
Them and us
By Bali Rai, 2009.
When David and his mother move to a predominantly Asian part of town to escape his abusive dad, he braces himself for starting at another new school. He makes a couple of friends, but finds himself the victim of racist bullies who hate him because he's white. On top of that, it looks like his dad might have figured out where he lives.
8
Billy and the Dragon
By Nadia Shireen, 2019.
Billy and the Dragon
By Nadia Shireen, 2019.
Our fearless heroine Billy is back!
Whilst at a fancy-dress party, something terrible happens: Billy's loyal sidekick Fatcat is kidnapped by a fire-breathing dragon. Uh-oh!
But luckily for Fatcat, Billy won't stand for that: off she goes on a brave rescue mission...
Copies
Search the Library Catalogue
Search the Library Catalogue
9
Meera Syal's Anita and me
By Tanika Gupta, 2015.
This poignant coming-of-age tale follows Meena, the irreverent teenage daughter of the only Punjabi family in the mining village of Tollington. When she becomes friends with the impossibly feisty Anita, she thinks she's found her soul mate but her world is turned upside down and she finds herself caught between her two cultures.
Adapted from the much-loved novel by the award winning playwright Tanika Gupta and with specially composed music by the Ringham brothers, Anita And Me paints a colourful portrait of village life in 1970's West Midlands during the era of flares, powercuts and glam rock.
Meera Syal's Anita and me
By Tanika Gupta, 2015.
This poignant coming-of-age tale follows Meena, the irreverent teenage daughter of the only Punjabi family in the mining village of Tollington. When she becomes friends with the impossibly feisty Anita, she thinks she's found her soul mate but her world is turned upside down and she finds herself caught between her two cultures.
Adapted from the much-loved novel by the award winning playwright Tanika Gupta and with specially composed music by the Ringham brothers, Anita And Me paints a colourful portrait of village life in 1970's West Midlands during the era of flares, powercuts and glam rock.
10
Brixton Rock
By Alex Wheatle, 2004.
Brenton Brown is 16 years old. A mixed race youth, Brenton has lived in a children's home all his life. Being reunited with his mother is the best thing that has happened to Brenton. But a strange series of events soon push him to the edge.
Brixton Rock
By Alex Wheatle, 2004.
Brenton Brown is 16 years old. A mixed race youth, Brenton has lived in a children's home all his life. Being reunited with his mother is the best thing that has happened to Brenton. But a strange series of events soon push him to the edge.
11
Max paints the house
By Ken Wilson-Max, 2003.
Max and his friends paint the house to match the sky. The trouble is that the sky is constantly changing. They all have different ideas on what colours to choose until in the end they have to make a compromise.
Max paints the house
By Ken Wilson-Max, 2003.
Max and his friends paint the house to match the sky. The trouble is that the sky is constantly changing. They all have different ideas on what colours to choose until in the end they have to make a compromise.
Copies
Search the Library Catalogue
Search the Library Catalogue
12
Dave and the Tooth Fairy
By Verna Wilkins, 2019.
Dave and the Tooth Fairy
By Verna Wilkins, 2019.
Dave has a wobbly tooth. He wibbles and wobbles it, but it won't come out. But then one day Dave lets out an enormous sneeze and the tooth flies across the room and vanishes.
Dave searches high and low, but it's nowhere to be seen. How will he get the tooth fairy to visit him now? A heartwarming picture book with a unique spin on the tooth fairy tradition.
Copies
Search the Library Catalogue
Search the Library Catalogue
13
Blood hound
By Tanya Landman, 2011.
The wife of anchorman Dermot O'Flannery dies during a bungled burglary and the killer is never caught. Six months later Poppy and Graham are faced with a long, hot summer dog-walking for Poppy's next-door neighbour.
This strange, parallel universe of Planet Dog seems a million miles away from the dreadful events that tore the news-reporter apart, but after a malicious prank is played on their fellow dog-walkers, Poppy and Graham find themselves crossing paths with Dermot O'Flannery. With lethal consequences...
Blood hound
By Tanya Landman, 2011.
The wife of anchorman Dermot O'Flannery dies during a bungled burglary and the killer is never caught. Six months later Poppy and Graham are faced with a long, hot summer dog-walking for Poppy's next-door neighbour.
This strange, parallel universe of Planet Dog seems a million miles away from the dreadful events that tore the news-reporter apart, but after a malicious prank is played on their fellow dog-walkers, Poppy and Graham find themselves crossing paths with Dermot O'Flannery. With lethal consequences...
14
Zora Neale Hurston : collected plays
By Zora Neale Hurston, 2008.
Zora Neale Hurston : collected plays
By Zora Neale Hurston, 2008.
Though she died penniless and forgotten, Zora Neale Hurston is now recognized as a major figure in African American literature. Best known for her 1937 novel, ""Their Eyes Were Watching God"", she also published numerous short stories and essays, three other novels, and two books on black folklore.Even avid readers of Hurston's prose, however, may be surprised to know that she was also a serious and ambitious playwright throughout her career. Although several of her plays were produced during her lifetime - and some to public acclaim - they have languished in obscurity for years. Even now, most critics and historians gloss over these texts, treating them as supplementary material for understanding her novels. Yet, Hurston's dramatic works stand on their own merits and independently of her fiction.Now, eleven of these forgotten dramatic writings are being published together for the first time in this carefully edited and annotated volume. Filled with lively characters, vibrant images of rural and city life, biblical and folk tales, voodoo, and, most importantly, the blues, readers will discover a ""real Negro theater"" that embraces all the richness of black life.
15
Hanif Kureshi
Since his astonishing Academy Award-nominated film, My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), Hanif Kureishi has been recognized as a major writer who has both documented and profoundly influenced contemporary British culture. His first novel, The Buddha of Suburbia (1990), remains a key work in redefining our sense of what it means to be English in the postcolonial era.
Hanif Kureishi: The author's writings include novels such as The Black Album, My Son the Fanatic and Something to Tell You to films such as Sammy and Rosie Get Laid, My Son the Fanatic and Venus. Kureishi's handles themes such as Thatcherism, terrorism, race, class and sexuality.
Hanif Kureshi
Since his astonishing Academy Award-nominated film, My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), Hanif Kureishi has been recognized as a major writer who has both documented and profoundly influenced contemporary British culture. His first novel, The Buddha of Suburbia (1990), remains a key work in redefining our sense of what it means to be English in the postcolonial era.
Hanif Kureishi: The author's writings include novels such as The Black Album, My Son the Fanatic and Something to Tell You to films such as Sammy and Rosie Get Laid, My Son the Fanatic and Venus. Kureishi's handles themes such as Thatcherism, terrorism, race, class and sexuality.
Copies
OverDrive eBook: Bhudda
OverDrive eBook: Something To
OverDrive: What Happened
Search the Library Catalogue
OverDrive eBook: Bhudda
OverDrive eBook: Something To
OverDrive: What Happened
Search the Library Catalogue
16
The Lonely Londoners
By Samuel Selvon,2006.
The Lonely Londoners
By Samuel Selvon,2006.
Both devastating and funny, The Lonely Londoners is an unforgettable account of immigrant experience - and one of the great twentieth-century London novels. This Penguin Modern Classics edition includes an introduction by Susheila Nasta.
At Waterloo Station, hopeful new arrivals from the West Indies step off the boat train, ready to start afresh in 1950s London. There, homesick Moses Aloetta, who has already lived in the city for years, meets Henry 'Sir Galahad' Oliver and shows him the ropes. In this strange, cold and foggy city where the natives can be less than friendly at the sight of a black face, has Galahad met his Waterloo? But the irrepressible newcomer cannot be cast down. He and all the other lonely new Londoners - from shiftless Cap to Tolroy, whose family has descended on him from Jamaica - must try to create a new life for themselves. As pessimistic 'old veteran' Moses watches their attempts, they gradually learn to survive and come to love the heady excitements of London.
Sam Selvon (b. 1923) was born in San Fernando, Trinidad. In 1950 Selvon left Trinidad for the UK where after hard times of survival he established himself as a writer with A Brighter Sun (1952), An Island is a World (1955), The Lonely Londoners (1956), Ways of Sunlight (1957), Turn Again Tiger (1958), I Hear Thunder (1963), The Housing Lark (1965), The Plains of Caroni (1970), Moses Ascending (1975) and Moses Migrating (1983).
17
Mr Loverman
By Bernardine Evaristo, 2013.
Barrington Jedidiah Walker is 74 and leads a double life. Born and bred in Antigua, he's lived in Hackney since the 60s. A flamboyant, wise-cracking local character with a dapper taste in retro suits and a fondness for quoting Shakespeare, Barrington is a husband, father and grandfather - but he is also secretly homosexual, lover to his great childhood friend, Morris.
His deeply religious and disappointed wife, Carmel, thinks he sleeps with other women. When their marriage goes into meltdown, Barrington wants to divorce Carmel and live with Morris, but after a lifetime of fear and deception, will he manage to break away?
Mr Loverman
By Bernardine Evaristo, 2013.
Barrington Jedidiah Walker is 74 and leads a double life. Born and bred in Antigua, he's lived in Hackney since the 60s. A flamboyant, wise-cracking local character with a dapper taste in retro suits and a fondness for quoting Shakespeare, Barrington is a husband, father and grandfather - but he is also secretly homosexual, lover to his great childhood friend, Morris.
His deeply religious and disappointed wife, Carmel, thinks he sleeps with other women. When their marriage goes into meltdown, Barrington wants to divorce Carmel and live with Morris, but after a lifetime of fear and deception, will he manage to break away?
18
Travel Light Travel Dark
John Agard, 2014.
John Agard has been broadening the canvas of British poetry for the past 35 years with his mischievous, satirical fables which overturn all our expectations. And he has just received the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry from Her Majesty the Queen. In this new symphonic collection, Travel Light Travel Dark, he casts his unique spin on the intermingling strands of British history, and leads us into metaphysical and political waters. Cross-cultural connections are played out in a variety of voices and cadences. Prospero and Caliban have a cricket match encounter, recounted in calypso-inspired rhythms, and in the long poem, Water Music of a Different Kind, the incantatory orchestration of the Atlantic's middle passage becomes a moving counterpoint to Handel's Water Music.
Travel Light Travel Dark brings a mythic dimension to the contemporary and opens with a meditation on the enigma of colour. Water often appears as a metaphoric riff within the fabric of the collection, as sugar cane tells its own story in 'Sugar Cane's Saga' and water speaks for itself in a witty debate with wine, inspired by the satirical tradition of the goliards, wandering cleri of the Middle Ages. Winner of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry, 2012
Travel Light Travel Dark
John Agard, 2014.
John Agard has been broadening the canvas of British poetry for the past 35 years with his mischievous, satirical fables which overturn all our expectations. And he has just received the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry from Her Majesty the Queen. In this new symphonic collection, Travel Light Travel Dark, he casts his unique spin on the intermingling strands of British history, and leads us into metaphysical and political waters. Cross-cultural connections are played out in a variety of voices and cadences. Prospero and Caliban have a cricket match encounter, recounted in calypso-inspired rhythms, and in the long poem, Water Music of a Different Kind, the incantatory orchestration of the Atlantic's middle passage becomes a moving counterpoint to Handel's Water Music.
Travel Light Travel Dark brings a mythic dimension to the contemporary and opens with a meditation on the enigma of colour. Water often appears as a metaphoric riff within the fabric of the collection, as sugar cane tells its own story in 'Sugar Cane's Saga' and water speaks for itself in a witty debate with wine, inspired by the satirical tradition of the goliards, wandering cleri of the Middle Ages. Winner of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry, 2012
19
My Two Grandads
By Floella Benjamin, 2010.
Aston's Grandad Roy played in a steel band and Grandad Harry played the trumpet in a brass band. Aston always enjoyed going to visit them and listen to them practise. But soon he wanted to join in. So he asked Grandad Roy to teach him to play the steel drums and then he asked Grandad Harry to teach him to play the trumpet.
He loved practising both instruments. Then the school needs a band to play at the school fair, and both grandads want their own band to play.
Finally Aston had an idea - both bands join together to make one big band, and Aston joins in first on steel drums and then on trumpet. This delightful story of a mixed-race family reconciling their very different cultures is a wonderful celebration of diversity.
Written by one of Britain's foremost campaigners and media personalities and illustrated by a highly regarded illustrator, this book is sure to build on the success of My Two Grannies.
My Two Grandads
By Floella Benjamin, 2010.
Aston's Grandad Roy played in a steel band and Grandad Harry played the trumpet in a brass band. Aston always enjoyed going to visit them and listen to them practise. But soon he wanted to join in. So he asked Grandad Roy to teach him to play the steel drums and then he asked Grandad Harry to teach him to play the trumpet.
He loved practising both instruments. Then the school needs a band to play at the school fair, and both grandads want their own band to play.
Finally Aston had an idea - both bands join together to make one big band, and Aston joins in first on steel drums and then on trumpet. This delightful story of a mixed-race family reconciling their very different cultures is a wonderful celebration of diversity.
Written by one of Britain's foremost campaigners and media personalities and illustrated by a highly regarded illustrator, this book is sure to build on the success of My Two Grannies.
20
Malorie Blackman
Malorie Blackman is one of the most successful and prolific children's authors writing today. Made Children's Laureate for 2013-15, her books, such as Noughts and Crosses, Double Cross and Knife Edge, are loved by kids and adults alike. Malorie's influence extends far beyond the literary world, however. She has used her position to speak out against racism, and to campaign for greater ethnic diversity in children's books and children's publishing.
This incredible writer - from her struggles as a child facing racism in 1960s London, through her parents' divorce and her misdiagnosis of Sickle-Cell Anaemia, to the globally renowned author she is today. Malorie loves of reading, and she tries to foster that in children today. She pursued her dream of becoming a writer with determination and courage, in the face of people who told her she would never amount to anything.
Malorie Blackman
Malorie Blackman is one of the most successful and prolific children's authors writing today. Made Children's Laureate for 2013-15, her books, such as Noughts and Crosses, Double Cross and Knife Edge, are loved by kids and adults alike. Malorie's influence extends far beyond the literary world, however. She has used her position to speak out against racism, and to campaign for greater ethnic diversity in children's books and children's publishing.
This incredible writer - from her struggles as a child facing racism in 1960s London, through her parents' divorce and her misdiagnosis of Sickle-Cell Anaemia, to the globally renowned author she is today. Malorie loves of reading, and she tries to foster that in children today. She pursued her dream of becoming a writer with determination and courage, in the face of people who told her she would never amount to anything.
21
Kite Spirit
by Sita Brahmachari, 2013.
During the summer of her GCSEs Kite's world falls apart. Her best friend, Dawn, commits suicide after a long struggle with feeling under pressure to achieve. Kite's dad takes her to the Lake District, to give her time and space to grieve. In London Kite is a confident girl, at home in the noisy, bustling city, but in the countryside she feels vulnerable and disorientated. Kite senses Dawn's spirit around her and is consumed by powerful, confusing emotions - anger, guilt, sadness and frustration, all of which are locked inside. It's not until she meets local boy, Garth, that Kite begins to open up - talking to a stranger is easier somehow. Kite deeply misses her friend and would do anything to speak to Dawn just once more, to understand why . . . Otherwise how can she ever say goodbye?
A potent story about grief, friendship, acceptance and making your heart whole again.
Kite Spirit
by Sita Brahmachari, 2013.
During the summer of her GCSEs Kite's world falls apart. Her best friend, Dawn, commits suicide after a long struggle with feeling under pressure to achieve. Kite's dad takes her to the Lake District, to give her time and space to grieve. In London Kite is a confident girl, at home in the noisy, bustling city, but in the countryside she feels vulnerable and disorientated. Kite senses Dawn's spirit around her and is consumed by powerful, confusing emotions - anger, guilt, sadness and frustration, all of which are locked inside. It's not until she meets local boy, Garth, that Kite begins to open up - talking to a stranger is easier somehow. Kite deeply misses her friend and would do anything to speak to Dawn just once more, to understand why . . . Otherwise how can she ever say goodbye?
A potent story about grief, friendship, acceptance and making your heart whole again.
22
Hit girls
By Dreda Say Mitchell, 2011.
Two kids are murdered...
Their gangland family want revenge.
Ten-year-old twin sisters are murdered outside their school. But they aren't just anyone's kids, they're gangster Stanley Lewis' daughters. When a rival gangster is arrested Stanley vows to take revenge. But his dad, feared villain Kenny Lewis, thinks there's more going on. So he contacts the one group of people who he trusts to help him find the truth...
Jackie, Anna, Roxy and Ollie. Four women with shady pasts who take the cases people don't take to the cops. They enter a world of easy sex and even easier violence where everyone, including the Lewis family, are hiding secrets. Then Jackie's son, a friend of the dead girls, disappears.
Hit girls
By Dreda Say Mitchell, 2011.
Two kids are murdered...
Their gangland family want revenge.
Ten-year-old twin sisters are murdered outside their school. But they aren't just anyone's kids, they're gangster Stanley Lewis' daughters. When a rival gangster is arrested Stanley vows to take revenge. But his dad, feared villain Kenny Lewis, thinks there's more going on. So he contacts the one group of people who he trusts to help him find the truth...
Jackie, Anna, Roxy and Ollie. Four women with shady pasts who take the cases people don't take to the cops. They enter a world of easy sex and even easier violence where everyone, including the Lewis family, are hiding secrets. Then Jackie's son, a friend of the dead girls, disappears.
23
Small Island
By Andrea Levy, 2004.
Small Island by bestselling author Andrea Levy won the Orange Prize for Fiction, as well as the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the Whitbread. It is possibly the definitive fictional account of the experiences of the Empire Windrush generation. Now a major BBC drama starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Naomie Harris, its enduring appeal will captivate fans of Maya Angelou and Zadie Smith.
'A great read... honest, skilful, thoughtful and important' - Guardian
It is 1948, and England is recovering from a war. But at 21 Nevern Street, London, the conflict has only just begun. Queenie Bligh's neighbours do not approve when she agrees to take in Jamaican lodgers, but Queenie doesn't know when her husband will return, or if he will come back at all. What else can she do?
Gilbert Joseph was one of the several thousand Jamaican men who joined the RAF to fight against Hitler. Returning to England as a civilian he finds himself treated very differently. It's desperation that makes him remember a wartime friendship with Queenie and knock at her door.
Gilbert's wife Hortense, too, had longed to leave Jamaica and start a better life in England. But when she joins him she is shocked to find London shabby, decrepit, and far from the golden city of her dreams. Even Gilbert is not the man she thought he was...
Small Island
By Andrea Levy, 2004.
Small Island by bestselling author Andrea Levy won the Orange Prize for Fiction, as well as the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the Whitbread. It is possibly the definitive fictional account of the experiences of the Empire Windrush generation. Now a major BBC drama starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Naomie Harris, its enduring appeal will captivate fans of Maya Angelou and Zadie Smith.
'A great read... honest, skilful, thoughtful and important' - Guardian
It is 1948, and England is recovering from a war. But at 21 Nevern Street, London, the conflict has only just begun. Queenie Bligh's neighbours do not approve when she agrees to take in Jamaican lodgers, but Queenie doesn't know when her husband will return, or if he will come back at all. What else can she do?
Gilbert Joseph was one of the several thousand Jamaican men who joined the RAF to fight against Hitler. Returning to England as a civilian he finds himself treated very differently. It's desperation that makes him remember a wartime friendship with Queenie and knock at her door.
Gilbert's wife Hortense, too, had longed to leave Jamaica and start a better life in England. But when she joins him she is shocked to find London shabby, decrepit, and far from the golden city of her dreams. Even Gilbert is not the man she thought he was...
Copies
Search the Library Catalogue
Search the Library Catalogue
24
In Jackie Kay's first collection of stories, ordinary lives are transformed by secrets. Her world might seem familiar - sex, death and family cast long shadows - but the roles of mothers, daughters and lovers are imagined and revealed in the most surprising of ways.
Sometimes it is the things that we choose to hide within ourselves which can transform us - and that has never been more true than in Jackie Kay's warm, exuberant storytelling. She sees the extraordinary in everyday life, and lights it up with humour and generosity in a way that is uniquely her own.
'If stories like these can still be written, the short story form must still be alive, not to say kicking' Irish Times
Sometimes it is the things that we choose to hide within ourselves which can transform us - and that has never been more true than in Jackie Kay's warm, exuberant storytelling. She sees the extraordinary in everyday life, and lights it up with humour and generosity in a way that is uniquely her own.
'If stories like these can still be written, the short story form must still be alive, not to say kicking' Irish Times
25
Postcolonial melancholia
By Paul Gilroy, 2019.
In an effort to deny the ongoing effect of colonialism and imperialism on contemporary political life, the death knell for a multicultural society has been sounded from all sides. That's the provocative argument Paul Gilroy makes in this unorthodox defense of the multiculture. Gilroy's searing analyses of race, politics, and culture have always remained attentive to the material conditions of black people and the ways in which blacks have defaced the "clean edifice of white supremacy." In Postcolonial Melancholia, he continues the conversation he beganin the landmark study of race and nation 'There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack' by once again departing from conventional wisdom to examine-and defend-multiculturalism within the context of the post-9/11 "politics of security."
This book adapts the concept of melancholia from its Freudian origins and applies it not to individual grief but to the social pathology of neoimperialist politics. The melancholic reactions that have obstructed the process of working through the legacy of colonialism are implicated not only in hostility and violence directed at blacks, immigrants, and aliens but in an inability to value the ordinary, unruly multiculture that has evolved organically and unnoticed in urban centers. Drawing on the seminal discussions of race begun by Frantz Fanon, W. E. B. DuBois, and George Orwell, Gilroy crafts a nuanced argument with far-reaching implications. Ultimately, Postcolonial Melancholia goes beyond the idea of mere tolerance to propose that it is possible to celebrate the multiculture and live with otherness without becoming anxious, fearful, or violent.
Postcolonial melancholia
By Paul Gilroy, 2019.
In an effort to deny the ongoing effect of colonialism and imperialism on contemporary political life, the death knell for a multicultural society has been sounded from all sides. That's the provocative argument Paul Gilroy makes in this unorthodox defense of the multiculture. Gilroy's searing analyses of race, politics, and culture have always remained attentive to the material conditions of black people and the ways in which blacks have defaced the "clean edifice of white supremacy." In Postcolonial Melancholia, he continues the conversation he beganin the landmark study of race and nation 'There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack' by once again departing from conventional wisdom to examine-and defend-multiculturalism within the context of the post-9/11 "politics of security."
This book adapts the concept of melancholia from its Freudian origins and applies it not to individual grief but to the social pathology of neoimperialist politics. The melancholic reactions that have obstructed the process of working through the legacy of colonialism are implicated not only in hostility and violence directed at blacks, immigrants, and aliens but in an inability to value the ordinary, unruly multiculture that has evolved organically and unnoticed in urban centers. Drawing on the seminal discussions of race begun by Frantz Fanon, W. E. B. DuBois, and George Orwell, Gilroy crafts a nuanced argument with far-reaching implications. Ultimately, Postcolonial Melancholia goes beyond the idea of mere tolerance to propose that it is possible to celebrate the multiculture and live with otherness without becoming anxious, fearful, or violent.
26
The Front Room : migrant aesthetics in the home
By Michael McMillan, 2009.
The Front Room: Migrant Aesthetics in the Home is an exploration of the post-war British experience of immigrants, the decoration of their living spaces and their position in society in relation to decolonisation.
The Front Room : migrant aesthetics in the home
By Michael McMillan, 2009.
The Front Room: Migrant Aesthetics in the Home is an exploration of the post-war British experience of immigrants, the decoration of their living spaces and their position in society in relation to decolonisation.
Copies
Search the Library Catalogue
Search the Library Catalogue
27
Blackamoores: Africans in Tudor England, their presence, status and origins
By Onyeka, 2013.
Onyeka’s book Blackamoores: Africans in Tudor England, their Presence, Status, and Origins is a groundbreaking publication that challenges the deep held beliefs of what it is to be English. As the author states himself “Do we imagine English history as a book with white pages and no black letters in?” Onyeka has examined 250,000 documents during 10 years of research. This is the first time that a major historical publication has focused on the status and origins of Africans in Tudor England.
When we think of Tudor England we do not automatically think of Africans being present. Instead we limit such an African presence to modern times, implying that cultural diversity is a relatively new concept in Britain. However, Onyeka in this book emphasises that Africans were present across Tudor England: in cities and towns such as London, Plymouth, Bristol and Northampton. Significantly, these Africans were not solely enslaved peoples occupying the lowest portions of society. The few modern historians who have written about Africans in Tudor England suggest that they were all slaves, or transient immigrants who were considered as dangerous strangers and the epitome of otherness.
Onyeka references a variety of documents: both manuscript and printed, some of which have been found by him for the first time, whilst other evidence has been neglected or forgotten - until now. This book is long overdue. Blackamoores: Africans in Tudor England is changing the way we look at the Tudor period, and challenging our perception on it, as well as our perception of this country.
Blackamoores: Africans in Tudor England, their presence, status and origins
By Onyeka, 2013.
Onyeka’s book Blackamoores: Africans in Tudor England, their Presence, Status, and Origins is a groundbreaking publication that challenges the deep held beliefs of what it is to be English. As the author states himself “Do we imagine English history as a book with white pages and no black letters in?” Onyeka has examined 250,000 documents during 10 years of research. This is the first time that a major historical publication has focused on the status and origins of Africans in Tudor England.
When we think of Tudor England we do not automatically think of Africans being present. Instead we limit such an African presence to modern times, implying that cultural diversity is a relatively new concept in Britain. However, Onyeka in this book emphasises that Africans were present across Tudor England: in cities and towns such as London, Plymouth, Bristol and Northampton. Significantly, these Africans were not solely enslaved peoples occupying the lowest portions of society. The few modern historians who have written about Africans in Tudor England suggest that they were all slaves, or transient immigrants who were considered as dangerous strangers and the epitome of otherness.
Onyeka references a variety of documents: both manuscript and printed, some of which have been found by him for the first time, whilst other evidence has been neglected or forgotten - until now. This book is long overdue. Blackamoores: Africans in Tudor England is changing the way we look at the Tudor period, and challenging our perception on it, as well as our perception of this country.
Copies
Search the Library Catalogue
Search the Library Catalogue
28
The Golden House
by Salman Rushdie, 2017.
When powerful real-estate tycoon Nero Golden immigrates to the States under mysterious circumstances, he and his three adult children assume new identities, taking 'Roman' names, and move into a grand mansion in downtown Manhattan. Arriving shortly after the inauguration of Barack Obama, he and his sons, each extraordinary in his own right, quickly establish themselves at the apex of New York society.
The story of the Golden family is told from the point of view of their Manhattanite neighbour and confidant, René, an aspiring filmmaker who finds in the Goldens the perfect subject. René chronicles the undoing of the house of Golden: the high life of money, of art and fashion, a sibling quarrel, an unexpected metamorphosis, the arrival of a beautiful woman, betrayal and murder, and far away, in their abandoned homeland, some decent intelligence work.
Invoking literature, pop culture, and the cinema, Rushdie spins the story of the American zeitgeist over the last eight years, hitting every beat: the rise of the birther movement, the Tea Party, Gamergate and identity politics; the backlash against political correctness; the ascendency of the superhero movie, and, of course, the insurgence of a ruthlessly ambitious, narcissistic, media-savvy villain wearing make-up and with coloured hair.
In a new world order of alternative truths, Salman Rushdie has written the ultimate novel about identity, truth, terror and lies. A brilliant, heartbreaking realist novel that is not only uncannily prescient but shows one of the world's greatest storytellers working at the height of his powers.
The Golden House
by Salman Rushdie, 2017.
When powerful real-estate tycoon Nero Golden immigrates to the States under mysterious circumstances, he and his three adult children assume new identities, taking 'Roman' names, and move into a grand mansion in downtown Manhattan. Arriving shortly after the inauguration of Barack Obama, he and his sons, each extraordinary in his own right, quickly establish themselves at the apex of New York society.
The story of the Golden family is told from the point of view of their Manhattanite neighbour and confidant, René, an aspiring filmmaker who finds in the Goldens the perfect subject. René chronicles the undoing of the house of Golden: the high life of money, of art and fashion, a sibling quarrel, an unexpected metamorphosis, the arrival of a beautiful woman, betrayal and murder, and far away, in their abandoned homeland, some decent intelligence work.
Invoking literature, pop culture, and the cinema, Rushdie spins the story of the American zeitgeist over the last eight years, hitting every beat: the rise of the birther movement, the Tea Party, Gamergate and identity politics; the backlash against political correctness; the ascendency of the superhero movie, and, of course, the insurgence of a ruthlessly ambitious, narcissistic, media-savvy villain wearing make-up and with coloured hair.
In a new world order of alternative truths, Salman Rushdie has written the ultimate novel about identity, truth, terror and lies. A brilliant, heartbreaking realist novel that is not only uncannily prescient but shows one of the world's greatest storytellers working at the height of his powers.
29
Notes of A Native Son
By James Baldwin,
For many readers and scholars, James Baldwin occupies so central a place in black gay literary history that he has become a key representative for queer creative culture.
By the 1980s, critics and the public alike considered James Baldwin irrelevant. Yet Baldwin remained an important, prolific writer until his death in 1987. Indeed, his work throughout the decade pushed him into new areas, in particular an expanded interest in the social and psychological consequences of popular culture and mass media.
Baldwin's sustained grappling with "the great transforming energy" of mass culture revealed his gifts for media and cultural criticism. It also brought him into the fray on issues ranging from the Reagan-era culture wars to the New South, from the deterioration of inner cities to the disproportionate incarceration of black youth, and from pop culture gender-bending to the evolving women's and gay rights movements.
Notes of A Native Son
By James Baldwin,
For many readers and scholars, James Baldwin occupies so central a place in black gay literary history that he has become a key representative for queer creative culture.
By the 1980s, critics and the public alike considered James Baldwin irrelevant. Yet Baldwin remained an important, prolific writer until his death in 1987. Indeed, his work throughout the decade pushed him into new areas, in particular an expanded interest in the social and psychological consequences of popular culture and mass media.
Baldwin's sustained grappling with "the great transforming energy" of mass culture revealed his gifts for media and cultural criticism. It also brought him into the fray on issues ranging from the Reagan-era culture wars to the New South, from the deterioration of inner cities to the disproportionate incarceration of black youth, and from pop culture gender-bending to the evolving women's and gay rights movements.
30
Kindred
By Octavia Butler, 2014.
Kindred
By Octavia Butler, 2014.
Octavia E. Butler's masterpiece and ground-breaking exploration of power and responsibility, for fans of The Handmaid's Tale, The Power and Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing.
With an original foreword by Ayòbámi Adébáyò. '[Her] evocative, often troubling, novels explore far-reaching issues of race, sex, power and, ultimately, what it means to be human' New York Times 'No novel I've read this year has felt as relevant, as gut-wrenching or as essential' The Pool In 1976, Dana dreams of being a writer.
In 1815, she is assumed a slave.When Dana first meets Rufus on a Maryland plantation, he's drowning. She saves his life - and it will happen again and again.Neither of them understands his power to summon her whenever his life is threatened, nor the significance of the ties that bind them.And each time Dana saves him, the more aware she is that her own life might be over before it's even begun.
Octavia E. Butler's ground-breaking masterpiece is the extraordinary story of two people bound by blood, separated by so much more than time.
Copies
Search the Library Catalogue
Search the Library Catalogue
Comments