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I’m Black so you don’t have to be

£10.99

‘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.

In stock

Description

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.

Additional information

Weight 0.18 kg
Dimensions 19.6 × 12.8 × 1.8 cm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Paperback

Pages

ix, 240

Language

English

Edition
Dewey

941.0850922 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K