Novelists on Windrush Day at Waterstones Piccadilly
Novelists on Windrush Day at Waterstones Piccadilly
As part of this year’s Windrush Day commemorations, Hachette UK’s THRIVE Network and Dialogue Books hosted a compelling discussion on legacy, storytelling, and justice.
Patrick Vernon OBE was joined by novelists Mel Pennant and Lisa Smith, and moderated by award-winning journalist Kuba Shand-Baptiste. The event created space for an intimate and wide-ranging dialogue. Drawing from personal experiences, the panel explored how the Windrush Generation has shaped not only their own families and careers, but also wider British culture and identity.
About 100 Great Black Britons:
A book honouring the remarkable achievements of key black British individuals over many centuries, in collaboration with the 100 Great Black Britons campaign founded and run by Patrick Vernon OBE.
About Hachette UK’s THRIVE Network
THRIVE is Hachette’s Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Employee Network. We are an inclusive Network open to all employees of Hachette UK. We aim to build people up (by widening the representation of BAME employees and authors at Hachette), bring people together and build cultural awareness. By empowering discussion at Hachette, we aim to inform decision-making and enrich our publishing.
About Dialogue Books
Dialogue, the publishing brand created by Sharmaine Lovegrove, is home to a variety of phenomenal stories from illuminating voices often excluded from the mainstream. They shine a spotlight on stories by, about and for readers from LGBTQI+, disabled, working-class and Black, Asian and marginalised communities.
About the Novelists:
PATRICK VERNON OBE is a Clore and Winston Churchill Fellow, a fellow at the Imperial War Museum, a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a former associate fellow for the Department of the History of Medicine at Warwick University. Patrick was awarded an OBE in 2012 for his work in tackling health inequalities for ethnic minority communities in Britain. Since 2010 he has been leading the campaign for Windrush Day and in 2018 kick-started the campaign for an amnesty for the Windrush Generation as part of the Windrush Scandal which led to a government U-turn in immigration policy.
MEL PENNANT is an award-winning playwright whose work has appeared in the National Archives, as well as on stage. Born in London, she was raised by an extraordinary village, which included her Jamaican grandparents who moved to England in the 1950s as part of the Windrush generation. Mel is drawn to stories that explore what’s hidden below the surface and celebrate the richness and strength of tight-knit communities. She lives in London with her family and their dog, Bleu. A Murder for Miss Hortense is Mel’s first novel and she is currently writing another mystery starring Miss Hortense.
LISA SMITH is a writer from South London born to Caribbean parents. She has an MA in Creative & Life Writing from Goldsmiths, University of London, where she won the Pat Kavanagh Prize in 2019. Her short story Auld Lang Syne won the 2017 Guardian 4th Estate BAME Short Story Prize and in 2020 she was selected to join the London Library Emerging Writers Programme. Jamaica Road is her first novel.