Clair Wills: Lovers and Strangers

Clair Wills: Lovers and Strangers

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The battered and exhausted Britain of 1945 was desperate for workers - to rebuild, to fill the factories, to make the new NHS work. From all over the world and with many motives, thousands of individuals took the plunge. Most assumed they would spend just three or four years here, sending most of their pay back home, but instead large numbers stayed - and transformed the country.

Drawing on an amazing array of unusual and surprising sources, Clair Wills' wonderful new book brings to life the incredible diversity and strangeness of the migrant experience. She introduces us to lovers, scroungers, dancers, homeowners, teachers, drinkers, carers and many more to show the opportunities and excitement as much as the humiliation and poverty that could be part of the new arrivals' experience. Irish, Bengalis, West Indians, Poles, Maltese, Punjabis and Cypriots battled to fit into an often shocked Britain and, to their own surprise, found themselves making permanent homes. As Britain picked itself up again in the 1950s migrants set about changing life in their own image, through music, clothing, food, religion, but also fighting racism and casual and not so casual violence.

Lovers and Strangers is an extremely important book, one that is full of enjoyable surprises, giving a voice to a generation who had to deal with the reality of life surrounded by 'white strangers' in their new country.


464 pages

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The Migration Museum explores how the movement of people to and from Britain across the ages has made us who we are – as individuals and as a nation.

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Borough of Culture
Based In Lewisham

We are very proud to be based in Lewisham. Lewisham is the London Borough of Culture 2022 and has a proud history of supporting refugees and migrants. It's been formally recognised as a Borough of Sanctuary and is teeming with creative individuals and communities.


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