Features
What was life on board the Windrush like? Find out here. Novelist Andrea Levy talks about her book 'Small Island', and we learn about calypso music and some of its modern offshoots.
Life on Board
Most of the 492 West Indian passengers on the Empire Windrush were men, many of them ex-servicemen who were already familiar with the transatlantic voyage.
Calypso Music
Calypso music can be traced back to the sugar plantations of Trinidad in the late 18th century, where it arose as a means of coded, subversive communication.
After the Windrush: Changing Laws
Migration into the UK in the years just after the end of the second world war was largely made up of Polish and Italian refugees. These nationalities were favoured because of allegiances formed with Britain either before the war (in the case of Poland) or during its closing stages (Italy changed sides in 1943).
Windrush Hits the West End
In the summer of 2005, the heart of London’s West End was won over by a new musical – but this one wasn’t part of the Lloyd Webber juggernaut, or a Broadway import. It was 'The Big Life', an unusual commission born at the Theatre Royal in Stratford East, London, and set to ska music, a Jamaican blend of calypso and American jazz and R&B.
Andrea Levy: 'Small Island'
Writer Andrea Levy’s father and mother sailed from Jamaica to England on the Empire Windrush in 1948 in search of a better life.
Small Island: Extracts
In her 2004 novel "Small Island", Andrea Levy looks at the experiences of her father’s generation who returned to Britain after being in the RAF during the second world war. Here are three extracts from the book.
Ten things...
What do you really know about this hugely important steamship? ICONS has done the research for you…
Sam Walker: Black Cultural Archives
ICONS spoke to Sam Walker, director of the Black Cultural Archives, about the Windrush's significance. Click on a question the watch the answer.
