I'm Black So You Don't Have to Be

A memoir told through a series of intimate portraits, which build into a poignant, insightful and unforgettable testimony of West Indian British experience.***A NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023***'Grant is a natural storyteller... Compelling and charming'BERNARDINE EVARISTO, author of Girl, Woman, Other'Grant's most revealing work'NEW STATESMAN I m black, so you don t have to be, Colin Grant s uncle Castus used to tell him. If Colin born in Britain to Jamaican parents worked hard and became a doctor, his race would become invisible; he would shake off the burden his parents generation had carried. The reality turned out to be very different.This is a memoir told through a series of intimate portraits, including of Grant s mother Ethlyn, his father Bageye, his sister Selma, and his great uncle Percy. Each character we meet is navigating their own path. Each life informs Grant s own shifting sense of his identity. Collectively, these stories build into an unforgettable testimony of black British experience.