A memoir told through a series of intimate portraits, which build into a poignant, insightful and unforgettable testimony of West Indian British experienceA NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023Grant is a natural storyteller... Compelling and charmingBERNARDINE EVARISTO, author of Girl, Woman, OtherGrants most revealing workNEW STATESMANIm black, so you dont have to be, Colin Grants 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. The reality turned out to be very different.This is a memoir told through a series of intimate intergenerational portraits. We meet Grants mother Ethlyn, disappointed by workingclass life in Luton, who dreams of returning to Jamaica his father Bageye, a maverick and smalltime ganja dealer with a violent temper his sister Selma, who refashioned herself as an African princess.Each character we meet is navigating their own path. Each life informs Grants own shifting sense of his identity. Collectively these stories build into a poignant and insightful testimony of the black British experience an unforgettable exploration of family, identity, race and generational change.

Binding: Hardback;256 pages; Publisher: TBS-Penguin Random House Wholesale; Classification: BM; Weight: 486 g; Dimensions: 145 x 224 x 27

Something not quite right? You have 28 days from the day you receive it, to send something back.

Please note, we cannot offer refunds on fashion face masks, cosmetics, pierced jewellery, adult toys, and swimwear or lingerie if the hygiene seal is not in place or has been broken.

Items of footwear and/or clothing must be unworn and unwashed with the original labels attached. Also, footwear must be tried on indoors. Items of homeware including bedlinen, mattresses, and toppers, and pillows must be unused and in their original unopened packaging. This does not affect your statutory rights.

Click here to view our full Returns Policy.