MEET THE AUTHOR
Rosemary Collins talks to COLIN GRANT about his latest book Homecoming: Voices of the Windrush Generation
What inspired you to write the book?
My parents are Jamaican – they came here in the late 1950s. I always knew that they and their colleagues and peers had these remarkable stories to tell, which hadn’t really been told. I wanted to see them represented in this book. I wanted to see those characters brought to life.
What did you find most interesting about their stories?
I’ve interviewed about 50 people for the book. I found their humour really interesting, and their stoicism. What you get from oral history is individual stories multiplied. Through their telling you come to see the larger truths.
For instance, when it comes to looking for accommodation Caribbean people in this country initially had doors slammed in their faces all the time, and there were little signs in the window that said “No Dogs, No Blacks, No Irish”. When I was growing up this was just a phrase; I never really interrogated it. However, when I spoke to people I realised how those daily humiliations have stayed with them 50 years on. One woman, Waveney Bushell, told me that she would see these adverts in the newspaper. Because she had the door slammed in her face so often, she would ring or write in advance to alert the prospective landlord or landlady that she was black, so they wouldn’t waste each other’s time.
She says even today she cannot knock on the front door of a house if she suspects that the owner might be white. So I was quite surprised by the lasting legacy of daily humiliations.
Was it difficult for the interviewees to open up? In West Indian culture there’s a phrase – “Me don’t like people chat my business.” In other words, people don’t like to share their stories, and they don’t want to be talked about. There’s a great reticence in Caribbean culture. However, I just sat with them and after a while they began to relax, perhaps because I’m of Jamaican ancestry myself. Also, it’s partly because when you get to that age when you realise you’re closer to the end of your life than the beginning, you’re more prepared to share your stories.
How has the Windrush Generation scandal influenced how you see the book?
It would be a terrible shame if in the future we only ever associate the word Windrush with scandal. Nobody that I spoke to wants to be thought of as a victim – that’s not the legacy they want to leave. I think we need to acknowledge that there’s been this terrible scandal, and we should have some sort of truth and reconciliation about it, but ultimately that should not distract from the fact that the story of the Windrush generation in this country has been a triumph.