Matthew Lockwood's history of refugees in Britain goes to William Collins

William Collins will publish a "viscerally moving" history of refugees in Britain by migration scholar Matthew Lockwood.

UK and Commonwealth rights to This Land of Promise: A History of Exiles and Refugees in Britain were acquired from Bill Hamilton at AM Heath by editorial director Shoaib Rokadiya. The project has since been taken over by Sam Harding, assistant editor. It is due for publication on 20th June 2024.

The blurb reads: “Refugees seeking to reach Britain today often face perilous journeys, impossible bureaucracy and acidic public opinion. But this hasn’t always been the way. For most of our history, Great Britain cherished its outward image as a safe haven for those displaced by religious persecution, political violence or economic crisis – an island of stability in the midst of a violent world.

“In This Land of Promise, migration scholar Matthew Lockwood overturns many popular modern-day misconceptions about Britain’s history of immigration. He persuasively shows that exiles and refugees have not only been a constant presence in Britain across the centuries but have also been intrinsic to shaping Britain as it is today.”

Harding said: “Matt’s book could hardly be more timely or necessary. Weaving together the stories of refugees and exiles through the centuries, he uncovers the remarkable lives of people who reshaped our country for the better. This is history at its best: powerfully written, viscerally moving and grounded in the people who lived it.” 

Lockwood said: “The place of refugees in Britain is hotly debated. But what most people don’t realise is that for centuries, people have sought and found asylum here. You can’t tell the story of Britain, past or present, without telling the stories of refugees, the human beings at the centre of these debates. My book seeks to elevate the stories of refugees and place them at the centre of British history where they belong.”

Lockwood is the author of The Conquest of Death: Violence and the Birth of the Modern English State and To Begin the World Over Again: How the American Revolution Devastated the Globe (both published by Yale). He received his PhD from Yale University in 2014, where his dissertation won the Hans Gatzke Prize for outstanding dissertation in European history. He held posts at the Yale Center for the Study of Representative Institutions and at the University of Warwick before moving to the University of Alabama, where he is currently assistant professor of history.