Moving away from orthodox narratives of the Raj and British presence in India, this book examines the significance of the networks and connections that South Asians established on British soil. Looking at the period 1858-1950, it presents readings of cultural history and points to the urgent need to open up the parameters of this field of study. SUSHEILA NASTA is Professor of Modern Literature at the Open University, UK and a renowned critic, broadcaster and literary activist.

The figure of the diasporic or migrant writer has recently come to be seen in the West as the 'Everyman' of the late modern period, a cultural traveler who can traverse national, political and ethnic boundaries. Home Truths: Fictions of the South Asian Diaspora in Britain seeks to place individual works of now world famous writers such as V.S. Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, Sam Selvon or Hanif Kureishi within a diverse tradition of immigrant writing that has evolved in Britain since the Second World War. It also locates their work within an historical, cultural and aesthetic framework which has its roots prior to postwar migrations and derives from long-established indigenous traditions at 'home' and 'abroad'.

Writing is a form of cultural travelling: with words a means of making crossings and forging connections between apparently conflicting worlds. However, some writers have found it hard to reach an international audience: for decades the western literary establishment all too readily neglected work it variously labelled 'migrant', 'multicultural' or simply 'other'. In 1984 the literary magazine "Wasafiri" was founded to promote the work of such writers. Ever since, it has provided a significant platform for those once dismissed as marginal, those who use words to cross borders of real and imagined worlds.
To celebrate "Wasafiri's" twentieth anniversary, "Writing Across Worlds" brings together a selection of engrossing interviews with key international writers previously featured in the pages of the magazine. Conducted by distinguished critics, writers and journalists, the interviews offer a unique insight into the views and work of a remarkable array of authors. They also chart a slow but certain cultural shift: those who were 'other' have not only won the establishment's most revered literary prizes but have also begun to be seen as, quite simply, contemporary writers, writing across and into all our worlds.
With an introductory comment by Susheila Nasta, editor of "Wasafiri," this collection is essential reading for all those interested in contemporary literature.

South Asians have lived in Britain for centuries. From the first trade conducted between the two nations along the Silk Route to the adoption of Chicken Tikka Masala as a national dish, the ongoing mutual exchange of cultures continues to flourish today. Asian Britain vividly charts Britain's process of coming to terms with the historic realities of its culturally diverse past and present. This extraordinary photographic history draws upon culture, film, music, the military, business, the suffragist movement and the different phases of historic settlement of Asian migrants from the subcontinent, the Caribbean and East Africa. Personalities from the arts, business, politics and sport appear alongside the pioneers - the first female law student at Oxford, the first Indian RAF pilots, the first Asian MP - and of equal significance are the experiences and history of the ordinary immigrants.

Moving away from orthodox narratives of the Raj and British presence in India, this book examines the significance of the networks and connections that South Asians established on British soil. Looking at the period 1858-1950, it presents readings of cultural history and points to the urgent need to open up the parameters of this field of study.

The Cambridge History of Black and Asian British Writing provides a comprehensive historical overview of the diverse literary traditions impacting on this field's evolution, from the eighteenth century to the present. Drawing on the expertise of over forty international experts, this book gathers innovative scholarship to look forward to new readings and perspectives, while also focusing on undervalued writers, texts, and research areas. Creating new pathways to engage with the naming of a field that has often been contested, readings of literary texts are interwoven throughout with key political, social, and material contexts. In making visible the diverse influences constituting past and contemporary British literary culture, this Cambridge History makes a unique contribution to British, Commonwealth, postcolonial, transnational, diasporic, and global literary studies, serving both as one of the first major reference works to cover four centuries of black and Asian British literary history and as a compass for future scholarship.