The format of this book let it down. I was intrigued at the start but after reading a few snippets of story and a few with the same sort of story I looked ahead to find the next chapter but there wasn't one.
It's a book of short essays/stories but they are not organised by theme so you can't learn more. Not my kind of book sadly. I really wanted to learn more about the Windrush generation but this book style isn't for me,it seems like a slog with no chapters.

I went into this book with very little information about Windrush so I felt that I was missing a lot of context for the stories in this book. This is very much a me problem as I think I misunderstood the aims of this book and thought that I would get a look into what Windrush was and accounts of those who were part of the WIndrush generation; we definitely got the latter but the former was largely missing. This is an excellently crafted book which gives accounts chronological of the experiences of people in the West Indies prior to moving to "the mother country", the confusion they felt at the mistreatment they experienced whilst here, and experiences of life in the West Indies after years in England.

I enjoyed hearing the stories of all of the people in this book with paints such a rich tapestry of life whilst never shying away from the disgusting way that the English government and the English people treated them. There is a feeling of optimism in a lot of accounts but there is clearly a lot of pain too.

Thank you to the publisher for my eARC copy of this book. Unfortunately I didn’t love this book and therefore didn’t finish, I just didn’t connect with this one. Not for me, sorry.

A fascinating look at the experience of the Windrush generation based on a series of interviews by individuals who lived through the time. The author contextualises these interviews against an exploration of archival sources.

A must read for anyone who wants an insight into the Windrush generation, These interviews are by turn heartbreaking, informative and insightful, offering an opportunity to hear from the people who went through this experience. Highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK, Vintage for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed reading this book, I found it to be incredibly enlightening to hear the tales of so many different people and this book really embodied their voices. It was very moving at times and also very insightful on the Windrush Generation.

Colin Grant's 'Homecoming' is a collection of memories and stories from men and women who migrated to the UK from the West Indies. He takes a thematic approach, covering topics such as childhood, journey to the UK, working lives and experiences of racism, through the comments and recollections of different individuals.

This volume is a real labour of love for Colin Grant. He has interviewed and collated the experiences of dozens of individuals from different parts of the Caribbean, both those who returned and those who remained in the UK, into an important collection of social history.

I enjoyed the volume and am glad to have read it. However, I would have enjoyed reading some of the individual's stories in longer form, as the thematic approach does feel disjointed at times.

This was a brilliant book, I ended up listening to the audiobook and so glad I did! Listening to the voices of West-Indian recount their stories was a joy to my heart each morning.

I love reading non fiction and to think this was not so long ago. It’s so important to document personal history

Imagine you are being told all your life that you are part of a country that is very far away. You fight in its war. You are schooled in the same way as all the children in that country. Learn a curriculum that has little or no bearing on your life. Then you decide to go to the mother country, to the homeland only to find out that all the things you were told about were a lie.

Homecoming is an incredible book of life stories of the so-called Windrush generation who came to Britain from the Caribbean from between the 1940ies right up to the 1960ies. Colin Grant interviewed the people who thought they had come home only to discover they were ill-prepared, not wanted despite being needed and that the country they thought they knew was not at all what they were told.

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The has a roughly chronological timeline starting with lives back in the Carribean, their reasons for leaving, their arrival and their challenges and how they lived in Britain. It was heartbreaking to read this book at times. Most of them thought, they would come to England for 5 years, make some money and then go back home only to find out that they would hardly earn enough to even make a living, let alone put away money to buy some land back home as they had dreamt.

All their lives they had been told how wonderful Britain was only to come to a place that was dirty and run-down, full of bomb craters and as one person put it so much poverty in a way she had not seen before. Often the recollections are quite funny, with the smirk of hindsight. At times, they are just horrendous and make you angry.

I wish I could put this book in the hands of people who keep on going on about the “good old days”. I never believed there was ever such a thing like the good old days, not even in my lifetime. And it certainly wasn’t the good old days for people of colour arriving in the UK from anywhere in the world.

I particularly appreciated that Colin Grant interviewed Carribeans from all over that region and also those that settled outside of London. I always appreciate when there is a perspective of places all over the country. After all: England is not just London.

I appreciate this form of non-fiction writing, letting the people speak rather than retelling their stories. It adds a layer of realism that can often get lost when you are reading non-fiction is a second-hand account. An important and wonderful book.

"Homecoming draws on over a hundred first-hand interviews, archival recordings and memoirs by the women and men who came to Britain from the West Indies between the late 1940s and the early 1960s. In their own words, we witness the transition from the optimism of the first post-war arrivals to the race riots of the late 1950s. We hear from nurses in Manchester; bus drivers in Bristol; seamstresses in Birmingham; teachers in Croydon; dockers in Cardiff; inter-racial lovers in High Wycombe, and Carnival Queens in Leeds. These are stories of hope and regret, of triumphs and challenges, brimming with humour, anger and wisdom. Together, they reveal a rich tapestry of Caribbean British lives."

A fascinating book; learned a lot. Some of us have had the privilege to make it decades in life without ever hearing the word "Windrush", being unaware of many scandals and human rights atrocities on our own doorstep, and so it is imperative to educate on histories not learned, or that we were purely ignorant of, and no longer be complacent. A must read, speaking both to the past and current climate.

This book is both a time capsule and a statement very relevant to our world today. In this book, Grant has created an incredible patchwork of voices from the Windrush generation (and their children) which paints an insightful picture of their rich experiences. And in that, he turns the lens back on Britain and the wider West to our enduring attitudes towards colonialism and immigration.

Growing up near to London, I was used to seeing West Indian people as part of the community and as a child I don't think I ever wondered how they, or the Sikh and Hindu children also in my class had come to be in Britain. It's only in recent years that I've become aware that many of these families didn't just move here randomly, or on the off-chance that things might be better here. The immigration of different cultures, particularly that following the second world war, was based on the influence of colonialism, of the propaganda of Britain as <i>the</i> place to be that was fed to other countries of the Empire, of the promises fed to populations which the Empire exploited. Promises which many found were hollow only once they'd given up all they had, left their homes and loved ones, and made the difficult passage to our supposedly superior shores. As detailed in the first-hand oral histories in this book, the experience was often one of prejudice, isolation and employment inequalities that often made it impossible for people to afford the life promised to them or to return to their homes once reality bit. West Indian people were treated appallingly by a population that was unprepared to accept racial and cultural differences, and a government which backtracked on it's word.

That would lead you to expect a very gloomy book. But this is anything but. What shines through is the spirit of the Windrush generation - perseverance, optimism and joy. Despite the unfair odds stacked against them, this brave generation found a way to exist. Whether that was their ingenious way of getting around the barrier to property ownership, the strength they showed in boycotting prejudice employers, bringing what they could of home into the culture, or simply making the best of a bad situation, many of the people featured in this book were able to settle and reclaim some of those promises to make a good life here. I adored the way this book was told, and could have read many, many more accounts of what it was like to be part of the Windrush generation.

Grant doesn't get into a lot of depth of the political scandal which really brought this generation to the fore in the past decade, with the Hostile Environment policy and stamping many with illegal immigrant status. It is discussed, and there are voices of those who were effectively expelled from the county under this disgraceful approach. But the focus is very much on their lives - those they left behind (and I gained so much in reading about the West Indies under colonial rule from this book), those they found themselves in, and those they managed to build despite the odds. And from this, we Westerners can really learn a lot about the courage and stamina that immigrants have and the richness that opening our borders, minds and hearts to others can bring. At the same time, it really does throw into sharp focus the disgusting way that still, today, people are treated, and should serve as a learning opportunity on how to treat everyone, <i>anyone</i> with humanity.

Thanks to NetGalley and The Publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I highly recommend this important and timely book. The putting together of archival materiel in combination with first-hand interviews along with Colin's stories and memories of his up bringing with his parents to document the journey, transition and settlement of the Windrush Generation brilliantly captures and preserves this important part of British history for Generations to come. Funny, sad, shocking, insightful, hopeful, revelatory A must for all book shelves!

Much has been said about the 'Windrush Generation', those emigrants from the Caribbean who can to England in the 1950s in search of a better life. In this book Grant calls on first hand interviews to tell the story of those souls who left the warmth of their native land and the prejudice they often encountered on their arrival in the cold unwelcoming country that they viewed as 'home'.
The voices come across loud and proud, the people tell of their hopes and aspirations and then compare that with the reality - poor housing, job discrimination and everyday racism. they also tell home they created communities and banded together to survive. At times desperately sad and at times laugh out loud funny this is a portrait of history through the mouths of those who lived it. Grant is never politically biased, he allows the people to speak for themselves.

Homecoming is a memoir of the Windrush Generation. This is a beautiful, comic and often heartbreaking read that needs to reach the hands of as many people as possible.

What an absolutely outstanding book!

Homecoming draws on over a hundred first-hand interviews, archival recordings, and memoirs by the women and men who came to Britain from the West Indies between the late 1940s and the early 1960s. In their own words, we witness the transition from the optimism of the first post-war arrivals to the race riots of the late 1950s. We hear from nurses in Manchester; bus drivers in Bristol; seamstresses in Birmingham; teachers in Croydon; dockers in Cardiff; inter-racial lovers in High Wycombe, and Carnival Queens in Leeds. These are stories of hope and regret, of triumphs and challenges, brimming with humour, anger, and wisdom.

I adored this book. It was exceptionally well-written and the stories that were shared evoked emotions ranging from anger and frustration to humour and awe. I honestly felt as if I was sat with these people in their living rooms having a chat - a sign of amazing writing! Sadly, this is a part of British history that is relatively unknown to many Brits, which makes this book so so important.

I highly recommend this book, and I'd recommend it to absolutely anyone. It is a fantastic read that provided me with an incredibly important learning experience. I'll definitely be purchasing a physical copy to add to my bookshelves!!!

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

This book has short stories told by people of the Windrush generation. There is just a page or so from each person, and yet in that page I learnt so much, although they weren’t trying to actively teach me anything, they were just telling me about their lives. Through reading their stories, I understood why it is so important that we engage in Black History Month, why people are angry, how deprived of a history these people were. I have never before reviewed a book without finishing it, but this is a book which can be dipped in and out of. It holds lessons for us all.

This is the type of book I want to read to better understand both the people and the historical events. Authentic voices of those directly involved in the migration waves from the East Indies, talking about their experiences, both negative and positive, paints a truly realistic picture that I very much want to learn about.

I really cannot put into words how much I've enjoyed(even if enjoyed is not always the proper word to use, especially when one reads about all the difficulties they had to deal with) the voices featured in this book. They are so real and so powerful; motivational really. Despite all the barriers raised by the society they were trying to be a part of, they always found a way to achieve their dreams. They got together to fight the beast that was the English society at the time. The got together to help each other overcome not only external difficulties, but also the grief left behind when they sailed for England. I was particular touched by their feelings of being trapped between 2 worlds: not really belonging in their new country, but neither being part of their native lands anymore. I've observed this time and time again in the East European migrants and I am now convinced it is actually a characteristic of economical migration. I find it's really heartbreaking and in fact a limitation of open border ideology. I very much believed in open borders, but as time has passed and I've been witnessing to much suffering, my belief in migration as a solution to world poverty has started to falter. I also loved their honesty. They were not afraid to say how little regard they had for the English, with their weakness and lack of style. Also interesting to see that the mixing between blacks and whites was frown upon by both parties, and especially worrying how mixed race children weren't truly accepted by either. Of and the parties....my gosh...it must have been hell to live next door to one of the houses hosting the blues.

As for the form....there where a few things that I hope have been improved/fixed in the final version of the book(I've read an advance copy) - at times there was no delimitation between the author's thoughts and the interviewees. The content seems to be split in sections but once again there is no clear demarcation between them (once I got to the noted this sections seemed to even have titles, but they were missing in the body of the book, so hopefully this was edited before publication.). But in my view the biggest issues was the splitting of the voices/interviews. So the interviews have been split and arranged to build up this sections I was mentioning before. That's not intrinsically a problem, as it does work overall, but what happens is that the reader fails to remember the characters. Fails to engage at the deeper level, fails to develop connections and feelings for particular persons. I would have liked to read entire stories, to be able to remember some of this people by name, to be able to connect their names and stories. As it is, it's almost impossible. As I was reading, I managed to recognize a few names, but I couldn't really remember much about their own stories, as their lines have been split in such a way that one needed an exceptional memory to keep track of all the voices.

In Homecoming, Colin Grant presents excerpts from oral history interviews with members of the Windrush generation - West Indian people who came over to Britain from the late 1940s to the early 1960s seeking better opportunities than were available on the islands. It covers their experiences over 60+ years, from what the West Indies were like in the 1940s, to interviewees’ reactions to the 2018 Windrush scandal.

Grant states an aim to cover a huge breadth of experiences, and he certainly achieves it. While this mass migration is heavily associated in the public imagination with Jamaica and one ship, the Windrush, his interviewees travelled from all over the West Indies, with a particularly strong representation from Guyana, and came over on various ships at different times, heading to a number of towns and cities on arrival. They recount both welcoming and hostile reactions, pleasant and unpleasant times in their lives, successes and failures.

What really struck me was how the interviewees seemed to talk about their experiences of racism in such a matter-of-fact, ‘that’s just how it was’ way. Grant picks up on this, discussing how the interviewees’ present-day dismissiveness of these experiences contrasts with how much they hurt at the time, and how they got more emotional when he drew them to reflect more deeply. It has interesting implications for life story and memory studies; if people repress and pass over their memories of racism when recounting their experiences from years ago, are we in danger of getting the impression that it wasn’t that bad, and the adversity wasn’t that hard to overcome?

The overall narrative, as directed by the interviewees, is certainly one of triumph. They talk about finding their feet despite arriving in Britain with no plan and nowhere to go, introducing carnival (and, with it, much-needed colour and sound) as a reaction against racist rioting, winning at cricket, buying houses by setting up ‘pardner’ schemes among themselves after being rejected by the banks, and marrying white partners despite family opposition, sometimes on both sides - but, of course, they shouldn’t have had to face any of these trials in the first place.

There are nonetheless some stories that don’t have happy endings. I was particularly moved by the accounts of parents who left their children in the Caribbean and sent for them when they were settled - only to find that they no longer knew one another, and that the children missed the relatives who brought them up and felt supplanted by siblings who had been born in Britain.

I was also really interested to read about what life was like in the Caribbean in the 1940s, and what it’s like now. I had some previous idea about the imposition of British culture by colonisers in the West Indies, but I didn’t realise quite how extensive it was. I was also shocked to read about the experiences of people who have moved back; being rich by Caribbean standards, many become prisoners in their own homes because they’re so likely to fall victim to crime. To be wrongfully deported to a country you’ve never lived in, or haven’t lived in for decades, doesn’t just mean losing everything you’ve ever known, but it also puts you at risk of violence.

Homecoming contains a wide range of fascinating accounts from the Windrush generation that really made me think about the nature of memory and narrative.

A fascinating and essential read, the stories told in this book are the structure, the backbone and essence of what and who made postwar Britain, the Windrush generation, rescued the country post war, brought a wonderful intersection of diverse cultures and strong people fully hope. How they were treated is a deep shame that should never be forgotten by Britain, a great debt is owed and great compensation! A well brought together book, full of tears, laughter, joy and hope. A great lasting legacy.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion