Empire Windrush

In June 1948, the SS Empire Windrush docked in Tilbury, carrying with it the hopes and dreams of hundreds of young men and women from the Caribbean. Their arrival was to have far-reaching effects on Britain, signalling not only the beginning of mass migration to the UK, but also the unravelling of the Empire which they and their ancestors had lived under for almost 400 turbulent years. It was a landmark moment which influenced generations of writers, artists and thinkers. In this ground-breaking anthology, journalist and writer Onyekachi Wambu collates some of the best and most significant writing to mark 75 years since the arrival of Empire Windrush. Through poetry, fiction, journalism, essays and memoir, writers from the Caribbean, Africa and Asia - including Bernardine Evaristo, Zadie Smith, Andrea Levy, V.S. Naipaul, C.L.R. James, Salman Rushdie, John Agard, Stuart Hall, Ben Okri, Phyllis Wheatley, Olaudah Equiano and Mary Prince, amongst others - explore the Black British experience. Empire Windrush conjures a unique and powerful journey through the British past, present and future, via the prism of the Black imagination.