'This is the book I've been waiting for - for years. It's personal, historical, political, and it speaks to where we are now' Benjamin Zephaniah

From the first time he was stopped and searched as a child, to the day he realised his mum was white, to his first encounters with racist teachers - race and class have shaped Akala's life and outlook. In this unique book he takes his own experiences and widens them out to look at the social, historical and political factors that have left us where we are today.

Covering everything from the police, education and identity to politics, sexual objectification and the far right, Natives speaks directly to British denial and squeamishness when it comes to confronting issues of race and class that are at the heart of the legacy of Britain's racialised empire.

Natives is the searing modern polemic and Sunday Times bestseller from the BAFTA and MOBO award-winning musician and political commentator, Akala.

*RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK* SHORTLISTED FOR THE JAMES TAIT BLACK PRIZE | THE JHALAK PRIZE | THE BREAD AND ROSES AWARD & LONGLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING

'I recommend Natives to everyone' Candice Carty-Williams

'The kind of disruptive, aggressive intellect that a new generation is closely watching' Afua Hirsch, Observer

'Part biography, part polemic, this powerful, wide-ranging study picks apart the British myth of meritocracy' David Olusoga, Guardian

'Evocative, authentic and brilliantly told - a wonderful read.' David Lammy

Foreword by West Indies Cricketer Sir Clive Lloyd

Voices of the Windrush Generation is a powerful collection of stories from the men, women and children of the Windrush generation - West Indians who emigrated to Britain between 1948 and 1971 in response to labour shortages, and in search of a better life.

Edited by journalist and bestselling author David Matthews, this book paints a vivid portrait of what it meant for those who left the Caribbean for Britain during the early days of mass migration.

Through his own, and many other stories, Matthews explores: why and how so many people came to Britain after World War II, their hopes and dreams, the communities they formed and the difficulties they faced being separated from family and friends while integrating into an often hostile society. We hear how lives were transformed, and what became of the generations that followed, taking the reader right up to the present day, and the impact of the current Windrush deportation scandal upon everyday people.

At once a nostalgic treasure trove of human interest, which unearths the real stories behind the headlines, and a celebration of black British culture, Voices of the Windrush Generation is an absorbing and important book that gives a platform to voices that need to be heard.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2025 WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR NATURE WRITING

A 2025 OBSERVER WRITERS RECOMMEND BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

'Surprising at every turn and rewarding in ways you would never expect' MARLON JAMES
'An extraordinary, necessary book' ROBERT MACFARLANE
'Unique, profound, soulful, sensitive and nourishing' BERNARDINE EVARISTO
'Hold it in your hands and then dream of the green world' MONIQUE ROFFEY

The Possibility of Tenderness is a personal history narrated through the lens of the grung and plants. Its also a peoples history of the land, a family saga, an archival detective story through time. Its the migration tale of a young scholar who arrives in Britain from rural Jamaica to study at Oxford to achieve upward social mobility and who now lives in Roundhay Leeds. Suddenly, amidst his journey of dreams and class aspiration, the plants and people of his native district, Coffee Grove, begin to offer different ways of living, alternative dreams, and the possibility of tenderness and the permission to roam England.

Marrying the local and the familial with global history and unfolding as a timely and immersive tale of land, environment, and the world of plants, The Possibility of Tenderness reveals how the history of a tiny rural village in a mountainous region of Jamaica is interlinked with that of modern Britain. And, also what that rural village can teach us about leisure, land ownership and reclamation today.

Mama, the authors grandmother, is a central protagonist of the story. Alongside her, herbalists, plant workers, farmers, and plant lovers help forge an intimate portrait of Coffee Grove, as do the plants themselves; fever grass, jointa, search mi heart, leaf of life, helping Allen-Paisant revise his sense of self and solidify a new understanding of his place in the world.

The Possibility of Tenderness is a cross-pollinating book about the transformative power of plants, the legacy of dreams, and the lessons they offer for living with the earth.