colin grant

Brighton

Historian. Books include: 'Homecoming:Voices of the Windrush Generation' & upcoming 'I'm Black So You Don't Have to Be'. Director of @WritersMosaic

Articles

Imaobong Umoren examines the empire state of mind

2 weeks ago | observer.co.uk | colin grant

“England fever”, the name given to a condition contracted by young Caribbean adults in the 1950s and 60s, refers to their overwhelming desire to leave their homelands for Britain. The resulting swell of migration is satirised by the Jamaican folklorist Louise Bennett in her 1966 poem Colonization in Reverse.
Fierce competition for Paisley property

2 months ago | glasgowworld.com | colin grant

Watch more of our videos on ShotsTV.com and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565Visit Shots! nowA unique three-floor commercial and residential property in Paisley attracted a huge amount of interest when it went up for auction last week. The building, in Silk Street, comprises offices on the first and second floors plus a one-bedroom flat on the top floor. Six unique bidders between them submitted 38 bids, starting at £90,000 and ending at £131,000.
Bidding frenzy for Glasgow flat

2 months ago | glasgowworld.com | colin grant

Watch more of our videos on ShotsTV.com and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565Visit Shots! nowA massive bidding frenzy erupted when a one-bedroom tenement flat in Glasgow’s west end went up for auction last week. The red sandstone apartment, at 7 Airlie Street, Hyndland, attracted 85 bids from eight competing would-be buyers. Between them they succeeded in driving the price up from an opening bid of £120,000 all the way to £201,000, despite a Home Report valuation of just £150,000.
The Best of Everything by Kit de Waal review – the power of kindness

2 months ago | msn.com | colin grant

Microsoft Cares About Your PrivacyMicrosoft and our third-party vendors use cookies to store and access information such as unique IDs to deliver, maintain and improve our services and ads. If you agree, MSN and Microsoft Bing will personalise the content and ads that you see. You can select ‘I Accept’ to consent to these uses or click on ‘Manage preferences’ to review your options and exercise your right to object to Legitimate Interest where used.
The Best of Everything by Kit de Waal review - the power of kindness

2 months ago | theguardian.com | colin grant

Reflecting on his childhood in the autobiographical novel In the Castle of My Skin, George Lamming wrote that it was “my mother who really fathered me”. Damningly, the Barbadian novelist asserted that his father “had only fathered the idea of me”. That notion of children being left mainly, if not solely, the liability of mothers still widely resonates in Caribbean households.
We Were There by Lanre Bakare review – the forgotten voices of black Britain

2 months ago | msn.com | colin grant

Microsoft Cares About Your PrivacyMicrosoft and our third-party vendors use cookies to store and access information such as unique IDs to deliver, maintain and improve our services and ads. If you agree, MSN and Microsoft Bing will personalise the content and ads that you see. You can select ‘I Accept’ to consent to these uses or click on ‘Manage preferences’ to review your options and exercise your right to object to Legitimate Interest where used.
We Were There by Lanre Bakare review - the forgotten voices of black Britain

2 months ago | theguardian.com | colin grant

“It’s so hard to create something when there has been nothing before,” the Trinidad-born Nobel laureate VS Naipaul once complained to me, referring to his work for the BBC World Service programme Caribbean Voices (1943-58). That sentiment, that each generation of black Britons believes themselves to be bold pioneers working in a vacuum, has persisted since the beginning of mass migration to this country.
Hiding in the Front Room | Colin Grant

Feb 20, 2025 | nybooks.com | colin grant

The front room was the prime signifier of achievement for the pioneering West Indian migrants to the UK in the 1950s and 1960s, now known as the Windrush generation. A version of the Victorian parlor, the pristine front room was emblematic of the quest for respectability, with a settee whose protective transparent plastic covering was never shed, crocheted doilies adorning every item of furniture, and a glass, gold-trimmed drinks cabinet in the shape of a ship’s bow.
Bookselling is not a crime

Feb 11, 2025 | writersmosaic.org.uk | colin grant

Photo of Mahmoud Muna by Sally Hayden Simon LiebesnyThe Educational Bookshop in Jerusalem was founded in 1984 by Ahmad Muna, a Jerusalem-born teacher. For more than 40 years the bookshop and the Muna family have been inextricably linked, with members of the family all involved in the hundreds of aspects that make up running what has become a busy cultural institution. On Sunday 9 February 2025, Israeli police raided the bookshop and arrested the owner Mahmoud Muna and his nephew Ahmad.
Devastated Scots businessman offers £20k for return of his missing dog

Feb 6, 2025 | scottishdailyexpress.co.uk | colin grant |Ben Borland

A heartbroken businessman is offering a staggering £20,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of his missing dog. Vishal Lal is desperate to be re-united with his beloved pet ‘Bear’, who went missing on January 11. The Ayrshire man says he is traumatised by the loss of the three-year-old Pomeranian, who disappeared without trace from the garden of his Irvine home. “I was an alcoholic when I got him and the bond between us helped me stay sober for more than 500 days,” he said.