David Olusgoa wins the 2017 PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize
We're delighted to announce that David Olusoga has won the 2017 PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize for Black and British: A Forgotten History.
Black and British is a vital re-examination of the long relationship between the British Isles and the people of Africa and the Caribbean.
Black and British is a vital re-examination of the long relationship between the British Isles and the people of Africa and the Caribbean.
The PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize is awarded annually for a non-fiction book of specifically historical content. This year's judging panel was chaired by Professor Jean Seaton, with critic and historian Frances Stonor Saunders and the 2016 winner of the Hessell-Tiltman Prize Nicholas Stargardt.
On accepting the award, David Olusoga said:
It has been a bizarre and wonderful experience, to get all these other people's histories and experiences, and weave them together - with my own very personal stories, but also with a bigger story of this country ... No group – no ethnic group, no political group – owns any part of history. It's all of ours, and ours to conquer, and subdue, to make us go crazy.
Awarding the Prize, Jean Seaton, chair of the judges, said:
David Olusoga's Black and British: a Forgotten History is a wonderful read, but it won because it was so surprising. It discovers unexpected stories of black people in Britain, but it is as much about the ebb and flow of how the British have made that story (sometimes negatively, sometimes positively) part of the national narrative. Above all, this story – sometimes shaming and chilling, but equally inspiring and strange – is told with a great calm and curiosity. The tone invites us all to reflect and become part of the reassessment. It is a tremendous achievement.