Hurst, 2024

Reflections on migration, race and British society since the 1960s, from a journalist who made history as the BBC’s first non-white editor. Mihir Bose, born in Kolkata shortly before Indian independence in 1947, still feels enormous gratitude towards Mr Crombie of the UK’s Home Office, who fulfilled his dreams of settling there. After studying in Britain, Bose had left under parental pressure—now he could pursue his career in London.

 

This absorbing memoir shows how Britain has changed dramatically for the better since the ’60s. Then, landladies wouldn’t rent Bose a room; white women would not have relationships, for fear of mixed babies; and he suffered several assaults, fearing for his life.

 

Bose could not imagine then that the British would take such extraordinary strides towards multi-racial harmony. Yet Britain’s complex, sometimes deeply shameful, imperial legacy must still be addressed. Can twenty-first–century Britain grow once again and earn the gratitude of future generations?