John Murray Press to reissue Gerzina’s Black England with new intro from Zadie Smith

John Murray is reissuing Gretchen Gerzina’s Black England: A Forgotten History with a new introduction from Zadie Smith. 

The updated edition will publish 29th September. Georgina Laycock, publisher, acquired UK and commonwealth rights to from Caroline Dawnay at United Agents LLP.

Black England was originally published in the early 1990s after Gretchen visited a Bloomsbury bookshop in search of a book on Black British history, only to be told there were no Black people in England prior to 1945. She immediately went away and wrote Black England, which is often cited among prominent Black writers as the book that paved the way for their own work, including Zadie Smith, David Olusoga and Benjamin Zephaniah. 

Exploring an often-overlooked period of Black British history - the Georgian era, Black England tells the story of this era through the lives of several Black Britons of the time, in vivid and often moving detail.

Gerzina will be in the UK throughout October for Black History Month and there are events planned around the country to celebrate the new publication in partnership with Blackwell’s, Waterstones, Bookhaus, Charleston House and Off the Shelf festival.

Gerzina said: "Many years after first bringing my book Black England to light, it is wonderful to me to find that it is if anything even more relevant today. The people who walk through these pages are if anything more real to me today than they were when I first wrote about them. It was an absolute pleasure and a mission to bring them back to life."

Laycock added: "To rediscover this book which inspired so much of the writing I love, to republish this fascinating new edition at its original publishers, and to work with Gretchen – a hero of mine--has been a complete joy. I can’t wait to get the world re-reading Black England."