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  • Published: 1 February 2018
  • ISBN: 9781473554931
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: Audio Download
  • Length: 11 hr 27 min
  • Narrator: Afua Hirsch
  • RRP: $22.99

Brit(ish)

On Race, Identity and Belonging




A former Sky News and Guardian journalist exposes the uncomfortable truth about race in Britain today.

Random House presents the audiobook edition of Brit(ish): Why We Need to Talk About Race written and read by Afua Hirsch.

Afua Hirsch is British. Her parents are British. She was raised, educated and socialised in Britain. Her partner, daughter, sister and the vast majority of her friends are British. So why is her identity and sense of belonging a subject of debate? The reason is simply because of the colour of her skin.

Blending history, memoir and individual experiences, Afua Hirsch reveals the identity crisis at the heart of Britain today. Far from affecting only minority people, Britain is a nation in denial about its past and its present. We believe we are the nation of abolition, but forget we are the nation of slavery. We sit proudly at the apex of the Commonwealth, but we flinch from the legacy of the Empire. We are convinced that fairness is one of our values, but that immigration is one of our problems.

Brit(ish) is the story of how and why this came to be, and an urgent call for change.

'Brit(ish) is a wonderful, important, courageous book, and it could not be more timely: a vital and necessary point of reference for our troubled age in a country that seems to have lost its bearings. It’s about identity and belonging in 21st-century Britain: intimate and troubling; forensic but warm, funny and wise.' - Philippe Sands

  • Published: 1 February 2018
  • ISBN: 9781473554931
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: Audio Download
  • Length: 11 hr 27 min
  • Narrator: Afua Hirsch
  • RRP: $22.99

About the author

Afua Hirsch

Afua Hirsch is a writer, journalist and broadcaster. She is a columnist for the Guardian, and appears regularly on the BBC, Sky News and CNN. Brit(ish) is her first book and was awarded a Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Prize for Non-Fiction.

Also by Afua Hirsch

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Praise for Brit(ish)

Memoir, social analysis and an incisively argued challenge to unconscious biases: this is a truly stunning book on racial identity by a remarkable woman.

Helena Kennedy

Brit(ish) is a wonderful, important, courageous book, and it could not be more timely: a vital and necessary point of reference for our troubled age in a country that seems to have lost its bearings. It’s about identity and belonging in 21st-century Britain: intimate and troubling; forensic but warm, funny and wise.

Philippe Sands

[A] bracing and brilliant exploration of national identity … Through her often intensely personal investigations, she exposes the everyday racism that plagues British society, caused by our awkward, troubled relationship to our history, arguing that liberal attempts to be colour-blind have caused more problems than they have solved. A book everyone should read: especially comfy, white, middle-class liberals.

Caroline Sanderson, The Bookseller, Editor's Choice

Sure to be a conversation starter.

Layla Haidrani, Metro

Engaging and thought-provoking… Hirsch skillfully demonstrates how racism is so intrinsically embedded in our culture

Nudge

A warm, informative and occasionally heart-wrenching blend of the personal and the political, and the messiness in between the two... She asks some uncomfortable questions, challenging us as individuals, the government, institutions and society at large, to think carefully about what constitutes Britishness and how it can be a term that embraces communities of colour in the UK... Hirsch’s book is more than a countrywide conversation-starter, though: it’s a deeply personal look at who she always knew she was, but didn’t feel ready to say yet.

Nikesh Shukla, Observer

Hirsch’s writing is powerful, and ranges across a good number of subjects... Beyond the personal experiences, there are lots of pertinent observations in Brit(ish). There are nuggets of history and eye-opening details about the slave trade, the American South and Hollywood ... Brit(ish) is a fiery essay.

Kwasi Kwarteng, Sunday Times

This is essential reading on identity, and how what it means to be British perhaps needs to be recalibrated.

Stylist

Brilliant... Hirsch outlines a compelling vision for change... Her writing is both intensely personal and incredibly resonant: whatever your background and racial identity, Brit(ish) will make you think.

Refinery29

Skilfully blending memoir, history and social commentary around race, culture and identity. Hirsch writes with an incisive honesty that disproves the idea that privilege can be easily reduced to racial binaries... Hirsch shows us that the issues are complicated, that blackness is no more homogeneous than whiteness, and that we do need to talk about it if anything is to change.

Bernardine Evaristo, Times Literary Supplement

A dazzling book of stories ... Brit(ish) is, despite everything, a hopeful book ... It is impossible to do justice to the scope of this book ... The book teems with fascinating and uplifting as well as tragic stories ... This is writing that really shines.

Martina Evans, Irish Times

This is less a polemic about the past than an attempt to illuminate the problems of the present. Hirsch is exacting in her observations of how this history manifests itself today... This is a fierce, thought-provoking and fervent take on the most urgent questions facing us today.

Diana Evans, Financial Times

Blazingly intelligent and beautifully written ... To those of us who swan easily through life, our place in it never questioned, Hirsch's book is both a sharp rejoinder and necessary wake-up call.

Sarah Hughes, i News

An admirable guide to our mixed-up, mixed-race modern nation.

Ian Thomson, Spectator

Heart-warming, heart-breaking and informative.

Jacinta Ruscillo, Melan Mag

Brit(ish) is the work of a confident social guide ... The power of her writing matches that of other important black writers, among them [Paul] Gilroy and, going back two centuries, the American abolitionist John Brown Russwurm.

Colin Grant, Guardian

Engrossing ... we daresay that [Brit(ish) is] essential reading.

Pride Magazine, The Buzz List

Tackles our squeamishness about race with wit and wisdom.

Lucy Brooks, CultureWhisper

An utterly fascinating book on important aspects of contemporary Britain.

Marina Valzey, The Arts Desk

Searing ... Afua Hirsch's memoir adds a new chapter to the body of work on race in the UK.

Burhan Wazir, New Statesman

An alarming and essential read.

Olivia Ovenden, Esquire **10 Books We're Looking Forward To In 2018**

What truly rings loud throughout Brit(ish) is Hirsch's refusal to believe Britain's accepted version of our turbulent racial history ... If you're looking for a deeper delve into our hidden past, Brit(ish) is the book for you.

Ava Welsing-Kitcher, Stylist

London's Big Read wants to get the capital talking about [Brit(ish)] ... a personal and provocative exploration of British history, race, identity and belonging.

Jessie Thompson, Evening Standard

Brit(ish) brings together a thoughtful, intelligent, accessible, informative investigation on Britain as a nation not only in the midst of an identity crisis but in denial of what it has been and still is.

Dolly Alderton

Afua Hirsch's new book uses the personal and political to take a good look at what it's like to be a person of colour here, now. Here's where you'll get an insight into what it means to be a mixed race and univocally British, yet continuously plagued with the question 'but where are you really from?'

Jazmin Kopotsha, Debrief

A stirring interrogation of race and identity from an exciting, sharp mind.

Irenosen Okojie, Tablet

An excellent read.

Stephen Bush, Telegraph

[A] personal and admirably honest account of her journey towards self-realisation as a woman of colour.

Camden New Journal

A fascinating...deeply intelligent, witty and often moving exploration of race in modern Britain

Samira Ahmed, Mail on Sunday

Afua Hirsch's first book, Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging, was published to wide acclaim at the start of 2018. She looks at the many, multi-faceted questions that surround identity - both on a personal and societal scale - to pen a thought-provoking read.

Katie Berrington, Vogue

It is a life-shaping read.

Chine McDonald, Church Times, **Readers' Books of the Year**

Brit(ish) stands out from a crop of books on growing up mixed race in 70s Britain.

Gaby Hinsliff, Guardian, **Books of the Year**

Brit(ish) is an essential read for all. Hirsch's exploration of her identity brings to light the difficulties of growing up as mixed-race and black in Britain. She also challenges the British perception of race, and how our inability to confront our past has profoundly affected our ability to coherently understand and discuss race in our present. Brit(ish) is a call to action, if we genuinely want to progress as a society, we must change our discussions and understanding of race.

Louisa Hanton, Palantinate

A personal, political and challenging account of what it means to be British when you are racialised as Black. Hirsch is a brilliant and fearless intellect who deftly handles the complexity of the issues

Bernadine Evaristo, author of GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER, Guardian