The oral history of Britain’s first West Indian immigrants and their descendants

In 1948 the former troop ship Windrush made the 30-day journey across the Atlantic from Jamaica. The arrival of its 500 passengers, the first generation of Caribbean migrants in the UK, was the initial step in the formation of a new identity: the black Briton.

Fifty years later, Mike and Trevor Phillips spoke to those on the Windrush itself, as well as those who followed, to tell the story of Britain in the second half of the twentieth century through the eyes of the outsiders who became insiders.

Now updated to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the ship’s voyage and including reflections on its political and cultural legacy in 2023, Windrush is an essential record of this transformative era in British social history.

Mike Phillips is a writer and academic. He is the author of an award-winning crime fiction series and winner of the Crime Writers’ Association Silver Dagger. He served as a Trustee for the National Lottery Memorial Fund and was a member of the independent ‘Windrush: Lessons Learned Review’ commissioned by the Home Secretary and which reported in 2020.

Trevor Phillips is a journalist and business leader. As an ITV executive he won three Royal Television Society documentary awards, including for Windrush in 1998. He was founder Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission in 2007. He is a Times columnist, is the host of Sky News’ The Great Debate and chairs the global freedom of expression campaign Index on Censorship.