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I'm Black So You Don't Have to Be by Colin Grant
£10.99
Available
Product Ref. (e.g. ISBN, SKU)
9781529918366
Published:
25 Jan 2024
Format:
Paperback
Number of pages:
ix, 240 pages
Dimensions:
196x128x18mm
Weight:
0.180kgs
Author:
'I'm Black, so you don't have to be', Colin Grant's uncle Castus used to tell him. For Colin, born in Britain to Jamaican parents, things were supposed to be different. If he worked hard and became a doctor, he was told, his race would become invisible; he would shake off the burden he believed his parents' generation had carried. The reality turned out to be very different. This is a memoir told through a series of intimate intergenerational portraits. We meet Grant's mother Ethlyn, disappointed by working-class life in Luton, who dreams of returning to Jamaica; his father Bageye, a small-time criminal with a violent temper; his sister Selma, who refashioned herself as an African princess; his great uncle Percy, estranged from his family through his own pride. Each character we meet is navigating their own path. Each life informs Grant's own shifting sense of his identity.
A memoir told through a series of intimate portraits, which build into a poignant, insightful and unforgettable testimony of West Indian British experience.
***A NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023***
'Grant is a natural storyteller... Compelling and charming'
BERNARDINE EVARISTO, author of Girl, Woman, Other
'Grant's most revealing work'
NEW STATESMAN
'I'm black, so you don't have to be,' Colin Grant's uncle Castus used to tell him. If Colin - born in Britain to Jamaican parents - worked hard and became a doctor, his race would become invisible; he would shake off the burden his parents' generation had carried. The reality turned out to be very different.
This is a memoir told through a series of intimate portraits, including of Grant's mother Ethlyn, his father Bageye, his sister Selma, and his great uncle Percy. Each character we meet is navigating their own path. Each life informs Grant's own shifting sense of his identity. Collectively, these stories build into an unforgettable testimony of black British experience.
About the Author: Colin Grant is an author, historian and critic. He has written acclaimed biographies of the Wailers and of Marcus Garvey. Bageye at the Wheel, his memoir of growing up in a Caribbean family in 1970s Luton, was shortlisted for the PEN Ackerley Prize. His history of epilepsy, A Smell of Burning, was a Sunday Times Book of the Year. His most recent book, Homecoming: Voices of the Windrush Generation, was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week and Daily Telegraph Book of the Year. He is director of WritersMosaic and a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
| Number of pages | ix, 240 |
|---|
We will despatch your order as quickly as we can. If, for whatever reason, a product is out of stock we will contact you to discuss the likely delivery time or an alternative product.
| First Item | 2 Items & Over | |
|---|---|---|
| UK | £3.75 | £5.00 |
| EU | £15.00 | £30.00 |
| USA & Canada | £30.00 | £50.00 |
| Rest of the World | £45.00 | £60.00 |
| Collect in Store | free | free |
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