For Windrush Day this year we have put together a page of resources to learn more about the history of the Windrush generation. We want this to be a growing body of resources for you to continue referring to year-round.

Windrush Day, on June 22, marks the date when the Empire Windrush arrived at Tilbury Docks in 1948. This was the first of many ships bringing Caribbean migrants to the UK.

We want to honour and give thanks to the Caribbean community, Windrush generation and descendants of the Windrush generation for the contribution the community has made, not only in Islington but all over the UK. Read a Windrush story here by Neville and Daphne.

The resources below will give you an insight into what life was like for this generation and an updated picture of the hardship people from the community have experienced in recent years under the Windrush ‘hostile environment’ policies.

Books

Andrea Levy – Small Islands
Andrea Levy – Every Light in the House Burning
Andrea Levy – Never Far From Nowhere
Andrea Levy – Fruit of the Lemon
Andrea Levy – The Long Song
Colin Grant – Homecoming: Voices of the Windrush Generation – eBook and e-Audiobook on BorrowBox
Jay Bernard – Surge – eBook on BorrowBox
Stephen Bourne – Mother Country – eBook on BorrowBox
ER Braithwaite – To Sir, with love – eBook on BorrowBox
Amelia Gentleman – Windrush Betrayal – eBook on BorrowBox
David Matthews – Voices of the Windrush Generation – eBook on BorrowBox
Sam Selvon – Lonely Londoners – eBook on BorrowBox
Louis Hare – This Lovely City
Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff – Mother Country
Stuart Hall with Bill Schwarz – Familiar Stranger
James Berry – Windrush Songs
Wallace Collins – Jamaican Migrant
Trevor Phillips – Windrush: Irresistible Rise of Multi-racial Britain
Hannah Lowe – Ormonde
George Lamming – The Pleasures of Exile

Podcasts

Generation Windrush – Jaja Muhammed (Broccoli Content)

The Windrush Generation – History Extra podcast or listen on Spotify

Floella’s Story: How Windrush Hurt a Generation – listen on this Apple Podcast page or Google Podcasts

Gal-dem’s Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff and Leah Cowan on Windrush women and Britain’s Black Power movement – History Becomes Her – listen on Apple Podcasts or other links here.

Film and Television

Passages: A Windrush Celebration, Seven Films for Seven Decades – watch online via YouTube here

The Unwanted: The Secret Windrush Files on BBC iPlayer

Watch Sitting in Limbo on BBC iPlayer

Theatre

Small Island, the National Theatre’s epic, sold-out production of Andrea Levy’s novel traces the history between Jamaica and the UK through WWII to 1948. Streaming from 7pm on 18 June, until 7pm on 25 June.

If you have any suggestions for items we can include please email islingtonlife@islington.gov.uk