Books & Spoken Word
Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff with Kemi Alemoru and Sharmaine Lovegrove
Award-winning writer and editor, Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff, introduces Mother Country, a collection of 22 unique real-life stories of the Windrush children, spanning more than 70 years.
For the pioneers of the Windrush generation, Britain was ‘the Mother Country’. They made the long journey across the sea, expecting to find a place where they would be welcomed with open arms; a land in which they were free to build a new life, eight thousand miles away from home.
Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff (pictured) looks at the reality of their experiences, and those of their children and grandchildren in a collection of essays. She is joined by two of the contributors to the collection, journalist Kemi Alemoru and ground-breaking publisher Sharmaine Lovegrove, to discuss some of the 22 real-life stories.
is needed now More than ever
“The story of Windrush must not be sterilised, or overly simplified. It is not only a story of successful integration, sport and cultural icons, or even everyday heroes like my mother, any more than it is only a story of Home Office failure, of systemic racism, or the consequences of slavery. The story of Windrush, is, like any other, a story of humanity. Of life, love, struggle, hope, misery, success and failure. It’s one that is too often neglected in our media […] but this volume acts as a remedy to that failure of story-telling, which I ask you to both savour and share.”
– David Lammy MP
The 22 contributors to the collection are: Catherine Ross, Corinne Bailey-Rae, David Lammy, Gail Lewis, Hannah Lowe, Howard Gardner, Jamz Supernova, Kay Montano, Kemi Alemoru, Kimberley McIntosh, Lazare Sylvestre, Lenny Henry, Maria del Pilar Kaladeen, Myrna Simpson, Naomi Oppenheim, Natasha Gordon, Nellie Brown, Paul Reid, Riaz Phillips, Rikki Beadle-Blair, Sharmaine Lovegrove, Sharon Frazer-Carroll.
Picture credit: Yves Salmon
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