The Lonely Londoners

The Lonely Londoners
Author: Sam Selvon
Publisher: Penguin UK
Total Pages: 136
Release: 2014-09-25
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0241189462

Both devastating and funny, The Lonely Londoners is an unforgettable account of immigrant experience - and one of the great twentieth-century London novels At Waterloo Station, hopeful new arrivals from the West Indies step off the boat train, ready to start afresh in 1950s London. There, homesick Moses Aloetta, who has already lived in the city for years, meets Henry 'Sir Galahad' Oliver and shows him the ropes. In this strange, cold and foggy city where the natives can be less than friendly at the sight of a black face, has Galahad met his Waterloo? But the irrepressible newcomer cannot be cast down. He and all the other lonely new Londoners - from shiftless Cap to Tolroy, whose family has descended on him from Jamaica - must try to create a new life for themselves. As pessimistic 'old veteran' Moses watches their attempts, they gradually learn to survive and come to love the heady excitements of London. This Penguin Modern Classics edition includes an introduction by Susheila Nasta. 'His Lonely Londoners has acquired a classics status since it appeared in 1956 as the definitive novel about London's West Indians' Financial Times 'The unforgettable picaresque ... a vernacular comedy of pathos' Guardian

The Lonely Londoners

The Lonely Londoners
Author: Sam Selvon
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 105
Release: 2024-04-11
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 135049657X

London will do for you for now... And I will do for London. London, 1956. Newly arrived from Trinidad, Henry 'Sir Galahad' Oliver is impatient to start his new life. Carrying just pyjamas and a toothbrush, he bursts through Moses Aloetta's door only to find Moses and his friends already deflated by city life. Will the London fog dampen Galahad's dreams? Or will these Lonely Londoners make a home in a city that sees them as a threat? In the first stage adaptation of Sam Selvon's iconic novel about the Windrush Generation, Roy Williams sweeps us back in time to shine a new light on London, friendship, and what we call home. This edition of The Lonely Londoners is published to coincide with the world premiere at London's Jermyn Street Theatre in February 2024.

The Housing Lark

The Housing Lark
Author: Sam Selvon
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 162
Release: 2020-01-14
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0143133969

The humorous yet poignant novel of West Indian migrant life in London that adds an iconic voice to the growing Caribbean canon A Penguin Classic Set in London in the 1960's, when the UK encouraged its Commonwealth citizens to emigrate as a result of the post-war labor shortage, The Housing Lark explores the Caribbean migrant experience in the "Mother Country" by following a group of friends as they attempt to buy a home together. Despite encountering a racist and predatory rental market, the friends scheme, often comically, to find a literal and figurative place of their own. Will these motley folks, male and female, Black and Indian, from Trinidad and Jamaica, dreamers, hustlers, and artists, be able to achieve this milestone of upward mobility? Unique and wonderful, comic and serious, cynical and tenderhearted, The Housing Lark poses the question of whether their "lark," or quixotic idea of finding a home, can ever become a reality. Kittitian-British novelist and playwright Caryl Phillips contributes a foreword, while postcolonial literature scholar Dohra Ahmad provides a contextual introduction.

Moses Ascending

Moses Ascending
Author: Samuel Selvon
Publisher: Penguin UK
Total Pages: 175
Release: 2008-03-27
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0141189312

Sam Selvon�s Moses Ascending depicts West Indian Immigration in England. Moses, a Trinidadian who has been in England for some years now represents immigrants who come from all corners of the world to seek a better life. Like many immigrants he is hard-working. After years of living in a dingy basement he saves up enough money to buy a house. Moses calls this his dream house in the beginning of the book but later on he realizes that the house is a piece of garbage.

Absolute Beginners

Absolute Beginners
Author: Colin MacInnes
Publisher: Allison & Busby
Total Pages: 207
Release: 2011-10-06
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0749011408

London, 1958. In the smoky jazz clubs of Soho and the coffee bars of Notting Hill the young and the restless - the absolute beginners - are forging a new carefree lifestyle of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll. Moving in the midst of this world of mods and rockers, Teddy gangs and trads., and snapping every scene with his trusty Rolleiflex, is MacInnes' young photographer, whose unique wit and honest views remain the definitive account of London life in the 1950s and what it means to be a teenager. In this twentieth century cult classic, MacInnes captures the spirit of a generation and creates the style bible for anyone interested in Mod culture, and the changing face of London in the era of the first race riots and the lead up to the swinging Sixties...

Moses Migrating

Moses Migrating
Author: Samuel Selvon
Publisher: Three Continents
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2009
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

It has been more than 25 years since Moses Aloetta became one of the 'Lonely Londoners' in the novel of that name. Now - though an avowed Anglophile - he hankers for Trinidad, for sunshine, Carnival, and rum punch. With characteristic irony and delicacy of touch, Sam Selvon tells the story of Moses' re-encounter with his native land. This edition of the novel includes a new introduction to Selvon's life and work by Susheila Nasta, as well as a preface by 'Moses' that was written in 1992 for the first US edition of the work. This edition of Moses Migrating includes a new introduction to Selvon's life and work by Susheila Nasta, as well as a preface by 'Moses' that was written in 1992 for the first US edition of the work.

All the Lonely People

All the Lonely People
Author: Mike Gayle
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Total Pages: 372
Release: 2021-07-13
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1538720159

If you loved A Man Called Ove, then prepare to be delighted as Jamaican immigrant Hubert rediscovers the world he'd turned his back on this "warm, funny" novel (Good Housekeeping). In weekly phone calls to his daughter in Australia, widower Hubert Bird paints a picture of the perfect retirement, packed with fun, friendship, and fulfillment. But it's a lie. In reality, Hubert's days are all the same, dragging on without him seeing a single soul. Until he receives some good news—good news that in one way turns out to be the worst news ever, news that will force him out again, into a world he has long since turned his back on. The news that his daughter is coming for a visit. Now Hubert faces a seemingly impossible task: to make his real life resemble his fake life before the truth comes out. Along the way Hubert stumbles across a second chance at love, renews a cherished friendship, and finds himself roped into an audacious community scheme that seeks to end loneliness once and for all . . . Life is certainly beginning to happen to Hubert Bird. But with the origin of his earlier isolation always lurking in the shadows, will he ever get to live the life he's pretended to have for so long?

A Brighter Sun

A Brighter Sun
Author: Samuel Selvon
Publisher: Hodder Education
Total Pages: 206
Release: 2021-03-25
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1398319341

There have been many great and enduring works of literature by Caribbean authors over the last century. The Caribbean Contemporary Classics collection celebrates these deep and vibrant stories, overflowing with life and acute observations about society. 'Tiger thought, To my wife, I man when I sleep with she. To bap (father), I man if I drink rum. But to me, I no man yet.' Trinidad is in the turbulent throes of the Second World War, but the war feels quite far away to Tiger - young and inexperienced, he sets out to prove his manhood and independence. With his child-bride Urmilla, shy, bewildered and anxious, with two hundred dollars in cash and a milking cow, he sets out into the wilderness of adulthood. There is no map or directions for him to follow, he must learn for himself and find his own way. Suitable for readers aged 15 and above.