STEVEN ANDREW is moved beyond words by a historical account of mining in Britain made from the words of the miners themselves
Before Windrush: West Indians in Britain
Revelatory account of Caribbean immigration to Britain in the centuries before the Windrush generation’s arrival

IN RESPONSE to a call from the British government for workers to fill the gaps in Britain’s post-war labour shortage, the Empire Windrush brought the first large group of Caribbean people to Britain in 1948.
By 1973, nearly half a million had settled here. Working in the NHS, manufacturing and construction, transport and the postal service, each one was automatically a British subject and free to live and work in this country permanently.
The history of the Windrush generation is well-known, as is the ongoing scandal of the despicable treatment many have received in recent years in having their citizens’ rights denied.
More from this author

SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management

SUE TURNER is fascinated to read of another miners’ strike of the 1980s, told through the voices of women

A book whose positive message and clear-eyed sense of purpose make it an inspirational read is recommended by SUE TURNER

SUE TURNER recommends the first ever English edition of a memoir of Abraham Sutzkever, a poet turned resistance activist in the Vilna Ghetto in Lithuania
Similar stories

FRANCOISE VERGES introduces a powerful new book that explores the damage done by colonial theft

Co-curator TOM WHITE introduces a father-and-son exhibition of photography documenting the experience and political engagement of Chilean exiles

LYNNE WALSH applauds a show of paintings that demonstrates the forward strides made by women over four centuries

HENRY BELL steps warily through the collection of a Glaswegian war profiteer to experience his collection of Degas’ remarkable images of working people