Alford Dalrymple Gardner is one of the few living passengers to have travelled on the Empire Windrush. Now published for the first time, this is his stirring life story.

On 22nd June 1948, the Empire Windrush sailed from Kingston, Jamaica, to harbour at Tilbury Docks. It carried 1,027 passengers and two stowaways, and more than two thirds of them were West Indies nationals. Alford Dalrymple Gardner was among them.

Alford's story traverses both the uplifting highs and intolerant lows that West Indian migrants of his generation encountered upon travelling to Britain to forge out a life. From joining the British military during World War II to being forcibly deported back to Jamaica once it was won-only to come back to the UK when the government decided it needed him again-Alford witnessed milestone events of the 20th century that shaped the country he still lives in today.

In the context of a supposedly 'post-Imperial' Britain where the lives of West Indian migrants hang precariously on the whims of the Home Office, Alford's heartening testimony is a celebration of those who endured hardships so that generations to come could call this place home.

It all starts with a fire. Seven children, asleep in a big house in the Italian countryside. A forgotten candle. Their parents are not there. They are in a different country, a different continent, Africa, where other siblings are growing as part of the same family but in an entirely different life. Without their parents, the children feel dispersed, trying to keep hold of each other.

Now in his forties, Redesof works as an acupuncturist in post-Brexit London. From his balcony in Hackney he talks to his beautiful neighbour Telma telling her his story; of his childhood of migration from Congo to Italy to Britain, hoping to come to some sort of resolution with his past.
A heartfelt tale of displacement, family, and home, Ground delivers a story with international scope that is vital in today's world.