Just after World War II, West Indians began moving to London in large numbers. The artists, writers, and musicians among them found a place to create, and they found ways to express their complex notions of belonging to both the Caribbean and to the British Empire. Amanda Bidnall‘s The West Indian Generation: Remaking British Culture in London, 1945-1965 (Liverpool University Press, 2017) traces their paths and their fortunes, their successes and their troubles. Bidnall writes against a prevailing interpretation of immigrant London as torn apart with racial divisions. While this generation may have encountered degrees of racial animosity, they were at also intent on participating in and contributing to a burgeoning scene that welcomed them as newcomers.

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