The Pleasures of Exile

'Migration in the 50s and 60s was formative for a whole generation of Caribbean writers, artists and intellectuals who, as Lamming himself says, became 'West Indian' in London. The Pleasures of Exile is simply the most poignant, eloquent, insightful and poetic set of reflections on that experience.'

Stuart Hall

'The passing of more than 40 years hasn't dulled the sheer brazen confidence with which George Lamming brought a West Indian way of seeing to British life and literature.'

Peter Hulme

'George Lamming is one of the most important writers in the African diaspora, and one whose work has touched illuminatingly on significant aspects of colonialism, postcolonialism, and other matters vitally important to our comprehension of the worlds in which we live.' Michael Awkward

George Lamming is one of the major figures in late twentieth century literature: his novels -- including In the Castle of My Skin (1953) -- were part of the social, cultural, and political revolution of modern Black writing.

The Pleasures of Exile, originally published in 1960, is Lamming's first work of non-fiction. Written during his self-imposed exile in Britain, it explores themes of identity formation. Incorporating memoirs of his own experience, Lamming draws upon Shakespeare's The Tempest and CLR James's The Black Jacobins, as well as his own fiction and poetry. He conjures a rich spectrum of physical, intellectual, psychological and cultural responses to colonialism.

This new edition, with a new preface and introduction, reveals a writer far ahead of his time: written before the term 'post-colonial' was invented, the book explores issues that are central to studies of literature today, including the politics of migration, cultural hybridity and minority discourse.