Our Books

From Elephant and Castle to Southwark, from London Bridge to Westminster, Black History Walks takes you to historic locations around the city of London and gives in-depth historical context for each place, illuminating the presence of Black history throughout Britain's capital city.

In this guide, you'll get:
- Comprehensive coverage of historical places in London that have a relationship with Africa;
-How the most touristic attractions are actually hidden gems from Africa;
- Connections to places with African roots in this British metropolis;
- Walking tour routes that can be self-walked or done in tandem with the official Black History Walks tour.

Afrobeats is a fast-growing genre, one that has carved out a distinct and powerful Black identity rooted within the African continent.

The first book of its kind, A Quick Ting On: Afrobeats chronicles the social and cultural development of the eponymous music genre, tracing its rich history from the African continent all the way to the musical centre of the Western world.

This exciting new book takes a unique look at the music of the African diaspora and their children, delving into how Afrobeats and its sub-genres have provided new articulations of Black identity and pride. It remembers the Afrobeats pioneers and memorable cultural moments, as well as investigating the impact of African migration, travel and modernisation on the genre.

A Quick Ting On: Afrobeats provides an insightful look at how Afrobeats became the explosive music genre it is today.

WINNER of the James Tait Black Prize 2021 and The Republic of Consciousness Prize 2021.

As seen in Document Journal, Guardian and The White Review

Lush and frothy, incisive and witty, Shola von Reinhold's decadent queer literary debut immerses readers in the pursuit of aesthetics and beauty, while interrogating the removal and obscurement of Black figures from history.

Solitary Mathilda has long been enamored with the 'Bright Young Things' of the 20s, and throughout her life, her attempts at reinvention have mirrored their extravagance and artfulness. After discovering a photograph of the forgotten Black modernist poet Hermia Druitt, who ran in the same circles as the Bright Young Things that she adores, Mathilda becomes transfixed and resolves to learn as much as she can about the mysterious figure. Her search brings her to a peculiar artists' residency in Dun, a small European town Hermia was known to have lived in during the 30s. The artists' residency throws her deeper into a lattice of secrets and secret societies that takes hold of her aesthetic imagination, but will she be able to break the thrall of her Transfixions?

From champagne theft and Black Modernisms, to art sabotage, alchemy and lotus-eating proto-luxury communist cults, Mathilda's journey through modes of aesthetic expression guides her to truth and the convoluted ways it is made and obscured.

Black Women's hair is a topic that has been at the centre of contemporary conversation for some time. This informative book explores the rich cultural history of Black Womens' Afros, weaving in anecdotal tales from Black women along the way.

Exploring the ways in which Black women's natural hair is often politicised and judged, A Quick Ting On The Black Girl Afro chronicles the ways in which the styling of Black Women's hair has influenced popular culture and intersected with Black expression.

Complete with intimate interviews and real-life stories about natural hair journeys and the hunt for hair products, A Quick Ting On The Black Girl Afro is a powerful exploration into the Black Woman's Afro - celebrating the versatility and diversity of Black women's natural hair.

As seen in Grazia, the Guardian, and more...

Recognised as one of the most beloved fruits of the Black diaspora, Plantain holds profound value within the cultures and communities it is part of.

Compiled for the first time in one vibrant volume, A Quick Ting On: Plantain is an infectious cultural insight into the versatile fruit. Discover its contested historical origins, its multilingual etymology, the biochemistry that sets Plantain apart from regular bananas and, yes, the War of Pronunciation... Is it Plan-tain or Plan-tin?

Containing recipes from across the African continent, the Caribbean, Latin America and South Asia, author Rui Da Silva paints an astonishing international history of Plantain - celebrating food within Black households across the globe as an intimate marker of identity and culture.

From recent developments in farming practices to the effects of food gentrification on working-class Afro-Caribbean communities, Rui also explores the politics behind Plantain. Inflation, Fairtrade, and climate change all have a part to play in the ongoing journey of this coveted fruit.

Unifying stories of innovation, hardship and, above all, love, A Quick Ting On: Plantain is a delicious ode to the intersection of food, culture and humanity.

"Simply miraculous... As her saga becomes ever more spellbinding, so does the reader's astonishment at the magic she creates. This is a story about the triumph of the human spirit over bigotry, intolerance and cruelty, and at the center of The Book of Harlan is the restorative force that is music." - Washington Post

Harlan and his best friend are invited to perform at a popular cabaret in the Parisian enclave of Montmartre, but after the City of Light falls under Nazi occupation, they are thrown into Buchenwald-the notorious concentration camp in Weimar, Germany-irreparably changing the course of Harlan's life.

From pirate radio to Glastonbury's Pyramid Stage, journalist and rapper Franklyn Addo pens an extraordinary narrative of the history, present and future of Grime music.

The influence of Grime on contemporary British culture is difficult to understate. From fashion trends and evolving language to potent political statements, Grime is a musical juggernaut that has reverberated far throughout British society. Chronicled for the first time in powerful literary prose, Addo intelligently documents the genre's cultural explosion and investigates how it became the voice of a generation.

A phenomenal insight into the captivating and electrifying genre that has taken the British music scene by storm, A Quick Ting On: Grime is an essential and long-awaited read for Stormzy aficionados and grime newcomers alike.

Betty Trask Award winner 2016.

A stunning debut from the author of Speak Gigantular.

A fragile outsider living in London, Joy struggles to pull the threads of her life back together after her mother's sudden death. Emptiness consumes her and, needing to fill the gaps of her loss, she finds she is drawn to a unique artefact inherited from her mother - a warrior's head cast in brass that belonged to a king in eighteenth century Benin, Nigeria.

Joy is haunted by a beautiful young woman who appears in her photographs, familiar yet beguilingly distinct, the woman trails her wherever she goes. Joy begins to dream of a different time, a different place. She feels an inexplicable pull towards this mysterious female, and a past revealing itself through clues is scattered in her path. As family secrets come to light, she unearths the ties between her mother, grandfather, the wife of the king, a fearsome warrior, and the brass head's pivotal connection to them all.

Haunting and compelling, Butterfly Fish is a richly told story of love and hope; of family secrets, power, political upheaval, loss and coming undone.

'a novel of epic proportions... I fully expect to see Butterfly Fish on many an award nomination list.' Yvvette Edwards

'A stunningly well-written book, juggling different timescales with great skill. Benin itself is vividly imagined in a historical narrative that runs in parallel with the contemporary London one. It is a wonderful novel." Simon Brett OBE

'A wonderful, richly drawn novel, cleverly juxtaposing scenes from everyday London with African folklore and mysticism.' Joanne Harris

An intricately woven tapestry of stories where survival, resilience and self-discovery are passed down through generations of an Indo-Trinidadian family.

Celeste Mohammed's second novel-in-stories, Ever Since We Small, is a family saga which covers a sweeping landscape from the days of the British Raj in India, to multicultural modern Trinidad. Written in a blend of Standard English and several flavours of Trinidad kriol, the book follows the bloodline of a young woman, Jayanti, after her decision to become a girmitiya, an indentured labourer in the Caribbean.

Jayanti's grandson, Lall Gopaul, seeks to escape the rural village where he was born, but becomes seduced and corrupted by urban life. His son, Shiva, is forced to take a child-bride, Salma, but never recovers from the guilt. Heartache follows for their three children - Anand, Nadya and Abby - who must each find a way to accept and yet move past their parents' failed example.

Along the journey of these ten interconnected stories, the alchemy necessary to turn the Gopauls' inheritance of pain into a "generation of gold" requires intervention by the living and dead, the "real" and the mythical, the mundane and the magical, the secular and the sacred.

Newly crowned King George III must marry, but cannot wed the woman he loves - Catholic Lady Sarah Lennox. And so, a search begins for an appropriate Queen... In comes Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

For years Charlotte has hidden her ethnicity using white Elizabethan makeup to help her title-rich but cash-poor family survive. An opportunity to marry the British king is one that she can't pass up, but beyond the secret of her identity, Charlotte is also in love with someone else - the talented but poor commoner, Johann Christian Bach (son of JS Bach).

Does King George give up Lady Sarah for duty to crown and country? Will Queen Charlotte ever see Bach again? And what of her family secret and quest for answers?

A daughter. A lover. A fighter. A Queen. Tina Andrews's Queen Charlotte Sophia: A Royal Affair, offers a fantastic portrait of a woman, whose life continues to fascinate the world.

Illuminating her inner journey growing up mixed-race in Britain, Esua Jane Goldsmith's unique memoir exposes the isolation and ambiguities that often come with being 'an only'.

Raised in 1950s South London and Norfolk with a white, working-class family, Esua's education in racial politics was immediate and personal. From Britain and Scandinavia to Italy and Tanzania, she tackled inequality wherever she saw it, establishing an inspiring legacy in the Women's lib and Black Power movements. Plagued by questions of her heritage and the inability to locate all pieces of herself, she embarks on a journey to Ghana to find the father who may have the answers.

A tale of love, comradeship, and identity crises, Esua's rise to the first Black woman president of Leicester University Students' Union and Queen Mother of her village, is inspiring, honest, and full of heart.

Humanity has nearly destroyed its world through global warming, but now an even greater evil lurks. The indigenous people of North America are being hunted and harvested for their bone marrow, which carries the key to recovering something the rest of the population has lost: the ability to dream. In this dark world, Frenchie and his companions struggle to survive as they make their way up north to the old lands. For now, survival means staying hidden-but what they don't know is that one of them holds the secret to defeating the marrow thieves.

"Miigwans is a true hero; in him Dimaline creates a character of tremendous emotional depth and tenderness, connecting readers with the complexity and compassion of Indigenous people. A dystopian world that is all too real and that has much to say about our own." Kirkus Reviews

A Book of Secrets is the story of a woman named Susan Charlewood living in Elizabethan England. Born in what is now Ghana, Susan is enslaved by the Portuguese but later rescued by British sailors, who bring her to England. Once in England, she is raised and educated in an English Catholic household.

When Susan comes of age, the family marry her off to an older Catholic man, John Charlewood. Charlewood runs a printing press and uses it to supply the Papist nobility with illegal Catholic texts and foment rebellion amongst the Catholic underclass. When Charlewood dies, Susan takes over the business and uses her new position to find out more about her origins.

A look at racial relationships on the eve of the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade, A Book of Secrets is a revealing and compelling glimpse into a fraught time.

Stanley J. Browne is an actor, and he has been an actor all his life. Born to a Jamaican mother in a London suburb, he began rehearsing for the role of survivor from an early age. From birth he knew nothing but a home filled with love and the vibrancy of a Caribbean culture, but this changes when his mother is diagnosed with schizophrenia.

In this honest and gripping memoir, Stanley reflects on a childhood and adolescence torn apart by mental disorder. Because of it, he adopts the mantle of 'man of the house' as he is forced to scavenge for food and miss school, with his two sisters, to care for his baby brother. His life is further fragmented as they yo-yo in and out of the care system and Stanley must face the reality of being separated from his siblings.
An intelligent and sensitive child, Stanley descends into a life of crime and drug abuse. During his time spent in various young offender's institutions and prisons he battles with addiction and slowly begins to turn his life around.
Set against a backdrop of 1970s poverty, racism and hardship, Little Big Man is a powerful story of generational trauma and one man's determination to heal the wounds of the past. Most of all, it is a book about the universal desire for love, belonging and the search to find an authentic voice through the redemptive power of creativity and recovery.

From the Mangrove Nine to Notting Hill Carnival, writer and social commentator Chanté Joseph takes us through the formative, radical histories of Black British activism.

When the Windrush generation arrived in Britain, the concept of 'Black Britishness' or 'Black British Culture' did not yet exist. Fast forward to the present day, where a distinct and influential Black British identity exists.

This concise and informative book traverses the crucial topics within Black British history and culture: exploring community activism, protests, Notting Hill Carnival, the Black British Panthers, Women of the movement, the Mangrove Nine and the Black British Arts.

Celebrating and chronicling the fusion of social, political and artistic elements within Black activism in Britain, A Quick Ting On: British Black Power provides an insightful look at how the British Black Power movement first emerged and has developed since.

Winner of the 2022 OCM Bocas Prize for Fiction.

Shortlisted for the Society of Authors' McKitterick Prize 2022.

Finalist of the 2022 Firecracker Award in Fiction.

Coconut trees. Carnival. Rum and coke. To many outsiders, these and other sunny images are all they know about life in the Caribbean. However, if you want to learn how the locals truly live and experience the dark and often harrowing truths that lurk behind the idyllic imagery of Caribbean culture, then come visit the town of Pleasantview.

Come during election season, and see how one candidate sets out to slaughter endangered turtles - just for fun. Or come on the day the other candidate beats his "outside-woman," so badly she ends up losing their baby. Then come on the night of the political rally, where this grieving woman exacts a very public revenge. Stay a while, and see how this single event has a trajectory far beyond the lives of the immediate actors, with often tragic and heartbreaking consequences.

Written in a remarkable combination of Standard English and Trinidad Creole, Pleasantview showcases the entrenched political, racial, and class dichotomies of life in Trinidad: the generosity (yet cruelty) of the average Trini; the sense of optimism (and yet, despair) which permeates everyday interaction; and the musicality of Caribbean creole (kriol) expression that masks an ingrained and frequently violent patriarchy.

Merging the vibrancy and darkness of recent Caribbean writers such as Ingrid Persaud and Claire Adam with the linguistic experimentation of Marlon James's A Brief History of Seven Killings, Pleasantview is a landmark work in international fiction.

Continuously available in print since 1969, this novel has become embedded in progressive anti-racist culture with wide circulation of the book and hotly debated film. A literary classic, The Spook Who Sat by the Door is a strong comment on entrenched racial inequities in the United States in the late 1960s.

Dan Freeman, 'the spook who sat by the door', is enlisted in the CIA's elitist espionage program after a white senator decries the lack of Black officers in the agency. The first Black man in the Central Intelligence Agency, Freeman is given a desk job. Despite excelling, promotions are hard to come by as the token black in the CIA. Deciding he's had enough, Freeman uses the tactics he learns in the CIA to foment violent rebellion in Chicago, in a mirror image of the coups wrought around the world by the Agency itself.

With its focus on the militancy that characterised the Black Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s, this is the story of one man's reaction to ruling-class hypocrisy in ways that make the novel autobiographical and personal. As a tale of a reaction to the forces of oppression, this brilliant and funny satire by Sam Greenlee proves to be just as potent today as it was when it originally was published.

Symona Brown is a 37-year old Jamaican British woman living in South London looking for her Mr. Right whilst her biological clock loudly ticks on. She announces to her close girlfriends after a boozy Sunday brunch, that she is ready to up her game and start actively dating, to their surprise and delight. After being consciously single for a number of years, Symona remembers what worked and what definitely did not in the dating arena. This time, she knows who she is and what she wants.

As Symona reflects through her memories from one Mr. to another, she reveals her sensual, hilarious and downright frustrating encounters. She finds herself asking, "What does it mean to be a Black woman trying to exist, date and find love?" In her pursuit of love, she learns new lessons and different answers. Will these new revelations get her what she wants?

From the award-winning writer of The Reactive, Triangulum is an ambitious, often philosophical and genre-bending novel that covers a period of over 40 years in South Africa's recent past and near future -- starting from the collapse of the apartheid homeland system in the early 1990s, to the economic corrosion of the 2010s, and on to the looming, large-scale ecological disasters of the 2040s.

In 2040, the South African National Space Agency receives a mysterious package containing a memoir and a set of digital recordings from an unnamed woman who claims the world will end in ten years. Assigned to the case, Dr. Naomi Buthelezi, a retired professor and science-fiction writer, is hired to investigate the veracity of the materials, and whether or not the woman's claim to have heard from a "force more powerful than humankind" is genuine. Thus begins Triangulum, a found manuscript composed of the mysterious woman's memoir and her recordings. Haunted by visions of a mysterious machine, the narrator is a seemingly adrift 17-year-old girl, whose father never recovered from the shock of losing his wife. She struggles to navigate school, sexual experimentation, and friendship across racial barriers in post-Apartheid South Africa. With extraordinary aplomb and breathtaking prose, Ntshanga has crafted an inventive and marvelous novel.

Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2022.

Nephthys Kinwell is a taxi driver of sorts in Washington, DC, ferrying ill-fated passengers in a haunted car: a 1967 Plymouth Belvedere with a ghost in the trunk. Endless rides and alcohol help her manage her grief over the death of her twin brother, Osiris, who was murdered and dumped in the Anacostia River.

Unknown to Nephthys when the novel opens in 1977, her estranged great-nephew, ten-year-old Dash, is finding himself drawn to the banks of that very same river. It is there that Dash-reeling from having witnessed an act of molestation at his school, but still questioning what and who he saw-has charmed conversations with a mysterious figure he calls the "River Man," who somehow appears each time he goes there.

When Dash arrives unexpectedly at Nephthys's door one day bearing a cryptic note about his unusual conversations with the River Man, Nephthys must face both the family she abandoned and what frightens her most when she looks in the mirror.

Creatures of Passage beautifully threads together the stories of Nephthys, Dash, and others both living and dead. Morowa Yejidé's deeply captivating novel shows us an unseen Washington, D.C., filled with otherworldly landscapes, flawed super-humans, and reluctant ghosts, and brings together a community intent on saving one young boy in order to reclaim themselves.

The autobiography of Tippa Irie, Stick To My Roots tells the reggae musician's incredible story - from his trailblazing beginnings in Saxon Sound International to the Grammy Award-nominated "Hey Mama" with the Black Eyed Peas.

Titled after his 2010 hit single, the book will cover 40 years of Tippa's prestigious career: from the first sign of talent as a child in South London and family members encouraging him to enter local talent competitions, to making his first record and becoming the powerhouse and Reggae-scene legend he is now.

It's a story full of dreams, music and hope, but also the deep traumas and tribulations that Tippa experienced throughout his life.

A captivating, sexy romance that explores the limits of love at first sight...

Afro-Brazilian filmmaker Ren is recovering from a romantic betrayal. Kayla is a Black British artist and journalist keen to make her mark. Thrown together during a string of interviews in New York for Ren's latest film, they're struck by an irresistible attraction. The two surrender to one night of searing honesty and passion, which leaves them with more questions than answers about the future. With secrets lurking between them, letting their romance continue could upend the separate lives Ren and Kayla have so carefully built. But can they really risk losing their miraculous connection?

Day-to-day struggles, triumphant success stories, and unique circumstances. A Quick Ting On: Black British Businesses takes you on an informative journey through the history (and future) of Black British entrepreneurship.

With the powerful rise of Black British culture, Black British entrepreneurship has rapidly become a point of great conversation. This book looks back on significant moments in Black British entrepreneurship, exploring the struggles, success and unique circumstances that face Black British businesses.

Featuring brilliant interviews and first-hand accounts from some of your favourite Black British entrepreneurs - from Sharmadean Reid MBE and Ozwald Boateng OBE, to the late great Jamal Edwards MBE, and so many more - Black British Businesses offers an important insight into how one of Britain's most influential communities continues to create space in the world of business.

A modern retelling of Steinbeck's classic Of Mice and Men, this landmark work from DD Armstrong is a poignant look at intimacy, friendship, and masculinity.

Best friends Kyle and Sideeq are beginning their first year of college in West London. Sideeq, a talented aspiring artist, spends his time perfecting his artwork and hanging out with his friends while having to learn how to process the harrowing events of his past. Kyle's ambitions are to become a rapper and a successful businessman. Though the deep bond of friendship formed between Kyle and Sideeq puts them on a path to achieve their dreams, college soon brings with it serious teenage social politics and a bully that terrorizes their friend group.

As they navigate new friendships and love interests, will the two boys continue to fortify each other and help each other succeed? Or will the newfound stressors in their lives pull them apart forever?

"The premise of this novel alone caught my attention, the author behind it even more so. With exceptional skill and sharp insight, DD Armstrong creates the most authentic representation of West London youth culture I've seen yet; his voice is fluid and natural, a joy to read, ranging from the humorous, to the emotionally gut wrenching within a few immersive pages. Here is a writer with infinite promise at his fingertips. Something tells me, with this reworked classic, he's only just getting started." - Courttia Newland, author of A River Called Time

A young woman living in London, Ekuah loves deeply and loves hard, yet with each romantic encounter she is left feeling increasingly unmoored and adrift. She struggles in her love for Dee Emeka, a gifted musician, who is both passionate and distant in the way he loves her back. Confirming her worst fears about the unstable foundation of their relationship, he suddenly disappears from her life. Heartbroken, she is left to pick up the pieces, while searching for new validations and preoccupations from others.

But when, against a backdrop of enigmatic, poetic, nights in London, Venice, Accra and Paris, she finds an unexpected new love in the form of Jay Stanley, Ekuah re-focuses on her journey to meaningful love. She is determined to feel deeply again, but can she handle the vulnerability and forgiveness that comes with falling in love?

Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2019, a powerful, well-researched, fictional account exploring the trokosi tradition for the curious and the open-minded.

Abeo Kata lives a comfortable, happy life in West Africa as the privileged nine-year-old daughter of a government employee and stay-at-home mother. But when the Katas' idyllic lifestyle takes a turn for the worse, Abeo's father, following his mother's advice, places the girl in a religious shrine, hoping that the sacrifice of his daughter will serve as atonement for the crimes of his ancestors. Unspeakable acts befall Abeo for the fifteen years she is enslaved within the shrine. When she is finally rescued, broken and battered, she must struggle to overcome her past, endure the revelation of family secrets, and learn to trust and love again. In the tradition of Chris Cleave's Little Bee, Praise Song for the Butterflies is a contemporary story that offers an educational, eye-opening account of the practice of ritual servitude in West Africa. Spanning decades and two continents, Praise Song for the Butterflies is an unflinching tale of the devastation that children are subject to when adults are ruled by fear and someone must pay the consequences.

"Abeo is unrelenting - a fiery protagonist who sparks in every scene. Bernice L. McFadden has created yet another compelling story, this time about hope and freedom." Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of Here Comes the Sun