Before Windrush

A fascinating study that examines Liverpool’s mixed population and its approach to race relations, in order to provide historical context and perspective to debates about Britain’s experience of empire in the twentieth century.

West Indians have been coming to Britain for over 300 years, so the arrival of around 500 Caribbean passengers on the Empire Windrush in 1948 was not new. This book records twenty-eight early West Indian immigrants, such as Norman Manley, Learie Constantine, Una Marson and C.L.R. James, but also less well-known figures like the model Fanny Eaton, nurse Annie Brewster, footballer Andrew Watson and airman Billy Strachan. Their stories are interspersed with Asher's passionate poems.

Before Windrush: Recovering an Asian and Black Literary Heritage within Britain is an important intervention in the growing field of Black British literary studies. Composed of essays on non-white writers living in, or writing about, Britain in the period before the post-WW II wave of immigration, the anthology testifies to the existence of a British nation that has been multiracial and multicultural for centuries. Through an analysis of well-known figures such as Mary Prince, Mary Seacole, C. L. R. James, and Mulk Raj Anand as well as forgotten writers such as Helena Wells, Lucy Peacock, Olive Christian Malvery, Bhagvat Singh Jee, T. B. Pandian, and Lao She among others, the essays in Before Windrush shed light on an understudied aspect of Britain: its racial and ethnic complexity during the colonial period. The authors discussed here, whose work originates in and borrows from Romantic, Victorian, and Modernist conventions, challenge the implicit whiteness of English writing by showing the literary legacy of the Asian and black presence in Britain. Before Windrush places this hidden literary history of Asian and black literature within the social and cultural contexts of its British production. Contributors include Julie Codell, Pallavi Rastogi, W. F. Santiago-Valles, Jocelyn Fenton Stitt, Michelle Taylor, Stoyan Tchaprazov, Margaret Trenta, and Anne Witchard.

'Before the Windrush' is a fascinating study that enriches our understanding of how the empire 'came home'. By drawing attention to Liverpool's mixed population in the first half of the 20th century and its approach to race relations, it provides historical context and perspective to debates about Britain's experience of empire in the 20th century.

A book to celebrate the inspiring legacy of the Windrush pioneers.

The history and legacy of Indian and Chinese Caribbean indentured labourers who were part of the Windrush generation

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.

Broadcaster Trevor Phillips and his novelist brother retell the very human story of Britain's first West Indian immigrants and their descendants from the first wave of immigration fifty years ago to the present day.