Extraordinary stories by Black authors

by Robin Bunce

More than three decades after her election to Parliament, Diane Abbott is still racking up firsts. The first Black woman elected to Parliament, she also recently became the first Black person to represent their party at PMQs. Based on interviews with her colleagues, her political opponents and friends from school and university, as well as extensive archival research, Diane Abbott: The Authorised Biography traces Abbott’s path from London, via Cambridge University, through the media and radical politics into Parliament, and then to the top of Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow Cabinet.

by Reni Eddo-Lodge

The book that sparked a national conversation. Exploring everything from eradicated Black history to the inextricable link between class and race, Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race is the essential handbook for anyone who wants to understand race relations in Britain today.

by Bernardine Evaristo

🎧 Audiobook

Both unconventional memoir and inspirational text, Manifesto is a unique reminder to us all to persist in doing work we believe in, even when we might feel overlooked or discounted. Evaristo shows us how we too can follow in her footsteps, from first vision, to insistent perseverance, to eventual triumph.

by Barbara Blake Hannah

🎧 Audiobook

Growing Out provides a dazzling, revelatory depiction of race and womanhood in the 1960s from an entirely unique perspective.

With the responsibility of being the first Black woman reporting on TV comes an enormous amount of pressure, and a flood of hateful letters and complaints from viewers that eventually costs her the job.

In the aftermath of this fallout, she goes through a period of self-discovery that allows her to carve out a new space for herself first in the UK and then back home in Jamaica - one that allows her to embrace and celebrate her Black identity, rather than feeling suffocated in her attempts to emulate whiteness and conform to the culture around her.

by Georgina Lawton

🎧 Audiobook

Raceless is an exploration of a fundamental question: what constitutes our sense of self? Drawing on her personal experiences and the stories of others, Lawton grapples with difficult questions about love, shame, grief, and prejudice, and reveals the nuanced and emotional journey of forming one’s identity.

by David Olusoga

🎧 Audiobook

Unflinching and revealing, Black and British is a vital history that reveals how Black British lives have been woven into the fabric of the nation for centuries - from Roman Britain to the Black Lives Matter protests. Drawing on new research, original records and expert testimony, David Olusoga’s Black and British shows us exactly why Black history is not a separate or marginalized story, but an integral part of Britain’s cultural and economic life.

by Sandra Igwe

🎧 Audiobook

Black women are at higher risk of developing postnatal depression but are the least likely to be identified as depressed. Sharing the voices of other mothers, Sandra examines how culture, racism, stigma and a lack of trust in services prevent women getting the help they need. Breaking open the conversation on motherhood, race, and mental health, she demands that Black women are listened to, believed, and understood.

by Edward Enninful

🎧 Audiobook

A Visible Man traces an astonishing journey into one of the world’s most exclusive industries. Edward candidly shares how as a Black, gay, working-class refugee, he found in fashion not only a home, but the freedom to share with people the world as he saw it. Written with style, grace, and heart, A Visible Man shines a spotlight on the career of one of the greatest creative minds of our times. It is the story of a visionary who changed not only an industry, but how we understand beauty.