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10 Vintage Non-Fiction Recommendations

On Race, Identity and Belonging

Brit(ish)

The Sunday Times bestseller that reveals the uncomfortable truth about race in Britain today – and calls for urgent change

Brit(ish) is a wonderful, important, courageous book, and it could not be more timely: a vital and necessary point of reference for our troubled age in a country that seems to have lost its bearings. It’s about identity and belonging in 21st-century Britain: intimate and troubling; forensic but warm, funny and wise.

Brit(ish) brings together a thoughtful, intelligent, accessible, informative investigation on Britain as a nation not only in the midst of an identity crisis but in denial of what it has been and still is.

Memoir, social analysis and an incisively argued challenge to unconscious biases: this is a truly stunning book on racial identity by a remarkable woman.

[A] bracing and brilliant exploration of national identity … Through her often intensely personal investigations, she exposes the everyday racism that plagues British society, caused by our awkward, troubled relationship to our history, arguing that liberal attempts to be colour-blind have caused more problems than they have solved. A book everyone should read: especially comfy, white, middle-class liberals.

This is less a polemic about the past than an attempt to illuminate the problems of the present. Hirsch is exacting in her observations of how this history manifests itself today... This is a fierce, thought-provoking and fervent take on the most urgent questions facing us today.

A warm, informative and occasionally heart-wrenching blend of the personal and the political, and the messiness in between the two... She asks some uncomfortable questions, challenging us as individuals, the government, institutions and society at large, to think carefully about what constitutes Britishness and how it can be a term that embraces communities of colour in the UK... Hirsch’s book is more than a countrywide conversation-starter, though: it’s a deeply personal look at who she always knew she was, but didn’t feel ready to say yet.

Skilfully blending memoir, history and social commentary around race, culture and identity. Hirsch writes with an incisive honesty that disproves the idea that privilege can be easily reduced to racial binaries... Hirsch shows us that the issues are complicated, that blackness is no more homogeneous than whiteness, and that we do need to talk about it if anything is to change.

A dazzling book of stories ... Brit(ish) is, despite everything, a hopeful book ... It is impossible to do justice to the scope of this book ... The book teems with fascinating and uplifting as well as tragic stories ... This is writing that really shines.

Brit(ish) is the work of a confident social guide ... The power of her writing matches that of other important black writers, among them [Paul] Gilroy and, going back two centuries, the American abolitionist John Brown Russwurm.

Searing ... Afua Hirsch's memoir adds a new chapter to the body of work on race in the UK.

What truly rings loud throughout Brit(ish) is Hirsch's refusal to believe Britain's accepted version of our turbulent racial history ... If you're looking for a deeper delve into our hidden past, Brit(ish) is the book for you.

An admirable guide to our mixed-up, mixed-race modern nation.

Engaging and thought-provoking… Hirsch skillfully demonstrates how racism is so intrinsically embedded in our culture

Hirsch’s writing is powerful, and ranges across a good number of subjects... Beyond the personal experiences, there are lots of pertinent observations in Brit(ish). There are nuggets of history and eye-opening details about the slave trade, the American South and Hollywood ... Brit(ish) is a fiery essay.

This is essential reading on identity, and how what it means to be British perhaps needs to be recalibrated.

Brilliant... Hirsch outlines a compelling vision for change... Her writing is both intensely personal and incredibly resonant: whatever your background and racial identity, Brit(ish) will make you think.

Sure to be a conversation starter.

Blazingly intelligent and beautifully written ... To those of us who swan easily through life, our place in it never questioned, Hirsch's book is both a sharp rejoinder and necessary wake-up call.

A stirring interrogation of race and identity from an exciting, sharp mind.

Heart-warming, heart-breaking and informative.

Engrossing ... we daresay that [Brit(ish) is] essential reading.

Tackles our squeamishness about race with wit and wisdom.

An utterly fascinating book on important aspects of contemporary Britain.

Esquire **10 Books We're Looking Forward To In 2018**

London's Big Read wants to get the capital talking about [Brit(ish)] ... a personal and provocative exploration of British history, race, identity and belonging.

Afua Hirsch's new book uses the personal and political to take a good look at what it's like to be a person of colour here, now. Here's where you'll get an insight into what it means to be a mixed race and univocally British, yet continuously plagued with the question 'but where are you really from?'

[A] personal and admirably honest account of her journey towards self-realisation as a woman of colour.

A fascinating...deeply intelligent, witty and often moving exploration of race in modern Britain

Afua Hirsch's first book, Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging, was published to wide acclaim at the start of 2018. She looks at the many, multi-faceted questions that surround identity - both on a personal and societal scale - to pen a thought-provoking read.

Church Times, **Readers' Books of the Year**

Brit(ish) stands out from a crop of books on growing up mixed race in 70s Britain.

Brit(ish) is an essential read for all. Hirsch's exploration of her identity brings to light the difficulties of growing up as mixed-race and black in Britain. She also challenges the British perception of race, and how our inability to confront our past has profoundly affected our ability to coherently understand and discuss race in our present. Brit(ish) is a call to action, if we genuinely want to progress as a society, we must change our discussions and understanding of race.

A personal, political and challenging account of what it means to be British when you are racialised as Black. Hirsch is a brilliant and fearless intellect who deftly handles the complexity of the issues

Bernadine Evaristo, author of GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER

Brit(ish) resonated with me so deeply I can honestly say it transformed my life… Afua Hirsch is a hero to me

A beautifully written, poignantly honest memoir while also scrutinising modern history and popular culture. The breadth of Hirsch's focus is impressive... Her insights are numerous and profound, big and small, woven into the details of a personal life we can all learn from.

From Afua Hirsch - co-presenter of Samuel L. Jackson's major BBC TV series Enslaved - the Sunday Times bestseller that reveals the uncomfortable truth about race and identity in Britain today. 
 
You're British. 
 
Your parents are British. 
 
Your partner, your children and most of your friends are British. 
 
So why do people keep asking where you're from? 
 
We are a nation in denial about our imperial past and the racism that plagues our present. Brit(ish) is Afua Hirsch's personal and provocative exploration of how this came to be - and an urgent call for change. 
 
'The book for our divided and dangerous times' 
David Olusoga

Afua Hirsch

Exceptionally rich, inspiring, challenging, wise and moving. I didn't realise I needed this book until I read it and felt stirrings towards my own ancestral awakening of African female cultural beliefs and practices that were sadly long ago lost to the colonial project. This is a ground-breaking book that speaks to all women.

Bernardine Evaristo, author of 'Girl, Woman, Other'

We’re talking a lot about identity and race and politics, but also about the impact of colonialism on body image, and it’s just something that I had never considered before. I felt like I was learning a lot in reading her book … Celebrates women how they are, as they are.

I would wholeheartedly recommend Decolonising My Body by Afua Hirsch. It is a very brave and honest exploration, almost and excavation of Eurocentric standards of beauty and perceptions of body, particularly of the female body. It is also a calm and wise call of an awakening, a friendly – or sisterly – invitation to a transformative journey beyond these mental walls that have been erected around and between us by capitalism and patriarchy and colonialism. I found it both universal and timely

There's something on every page of this book that you didn't know before, or makes you look at things a new. An important publication.

Sathnam Sanghera, author of 'Stolen History' and 'Empireland'

Disarmingly honest... quietly radical

A remarkable journey to unlearn western beauty standards and explore ancestral skin, hair and body modification rituals.

Decolonising my Body is both a generous offering, and a joy filled testimony. Afua skilfully pulls us into her world, and generously allows us to accompany her on a journey of questioning and unpacking notions of beauty. This exploration lights a path for all people who seek to (re)connect with more expansive understandings of beauty.

Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah, author of 'The Sex Lives of African Women'

Afua has cut through so much of the noise to provide an enlightening and necessary reflection on how we can learn from the wisdom and beauty of our ancestors to become spiritually healthier humans. This book is a knowledge gift to us all.

Naomi Evans, author of 'The Mixed Race Experience', co-Founder of Everyday Racism

The journalist, commentator and author of Brit(ish) reflects on twelve months radical unlearning of Eurocentric and patriarchal conventions of beauty in this powerful and challenging volume.

Waterstones, 'Best Books of 2023: Politics'

Afua Hirsch’s Decolonising My Body is a breath of fresh air and is a travel book, a beauty book, and a history book all in one. It made me think about capitalism and race and the body in a new way

This is a vital, challenging account of reassessing body image beyond the colonial, patriarchal gaze – told with Hirsch’s trademark rigour and purpose

Decolonising My Body is Hirsch’s pilgrimage towards another definition of rest and care, one that feels ancestral and intimate. As a reader you can’t help but be swept up in her quest of gentle unlearning and relearning

Praise for Brit(ish): Highly personal and yet instantly universal, this is a book that millions will instantly relate to. The book for our divided and dangerous times.

David Olusoga, author of 'Black and British'

Praise for Brit(ish): A warm, informative and occasionally heart-wrenching blend of personal and political and the messiness between the two'

Nikesh Shukla, author of 'The Good Immigrant'

On Ancestry, Tradition and Cultural Reinvention

Our bodies tell our story. 
 
Upon turning forty, Afua Hirsch had an encounter that forever altered her preconceived notions of ancestry and body image, making her question everything from body-modification rituals such as tattoos and piercings to the foundations of sexuality. 
 
Decolonising My Body charts her year-long journey of radical unlearning. Bringing together global scholarship, on-the-ground reportage, personal anecdotes and interviews with beauty experts, practitioners and service users, Hirsch reassesses notions of body image beyond those of the colonial, patriarchal gaze. Taking us from puberty to end-of-life, she shows us that the ways in which we adorn and present ourselves have spiritual implications and shape the possibilities we see for ourselves in the world.

Decolonising My Body

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10 Vintage Non-Fiction Recommendations

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