Diary of a Shopkeeper, 11th June

I’m still on my travels, and after last week in Edinburgh I’m now in London for a few days. This is really a pause before I fly out of Gatwick to my final destination, which I’ll tell you about next week.

Two days in London! How to fill such a vast expanse of time in this strange, remote place? As it turns out, mostly just by getting from A to B. In the West Mainland, even having to dodge tour buses, tractors and shoals of cyclists, I can still drive the 12 miles from home to shop in less than 20 minutes. Here in London, just crossing from one side of the city centre to the other can take twice that long. So you have to plan ahead and group together places you want to visit. At home it’s second nature: if I wanted to spend my day off at Robertson’s Café, the Sands o Wright and Birsay Books, I’d do the first two in the morning, leaving the bookshop for the afternoon. So yesterday, when I stepped off the train from Waverley, rather than going straightaway south to Peckham, where the friends I’m staying with live, I headed a couple of tube stops north to Finsbury Park, and New Beacon Books.

New Beacon was founded in 1966 by John La Rose and Sarah White. It was both enabled by, and gave focus to, the Caribbean Artists Movement, and Black British writing and art more generally. Writers from British colonies had been striving for decades to make their voices heard – people like CLR James from Trinidad and Peter Abrahams from South Africa. But they were isolated figures. After WW2, there was a sea-change. A new workforce was required to replace those killed in the fighting, and to rebuild Britain’s shattered infrastructure. Hence the government’s appeal for substantial numbers of people from the colonies to come and make their homes here. The trials and triumphs of what we now think of as The Windrush Generation are encapsulated in New Beacon Books.

As well as selling books, La Rose and White started publishing them too. The shop became a venue for readings, discussions and political gatherings. Eventually it became home to the George Padmore Institute, an important educational resource and archive of Black British history. Above all it became a meeting place, both formal and informal, for any writer, artist or activist from Britain’s former or remaining colonies. Well-known novelists like Sam Selvon, poets like Linton Kwesi Johnson and academics like Edward Kamau Braithwaite mixed with writers just starting out on a career – or a campaign. It was a fertile breeding ground for ideas and activism.

With the roots of the Orkney community stretching back millennia, it’s easy to feel a close connection to the place and the people around us. It’s not unchanging, but the change is a slow evolution. For the thousands encouraged to move to ‘the home country’, who found themselves in a cold, often hostile environment, these networks of language, story and community had to be created almost from scratch.

Eventually the New Beacon community was strong enough, and its voice clear enough, that many with no connection to the Caribbean realised they had much to learn from its insights. Liverpool poet Adrian Mitchell frequented the shop, and Glasgow novelist James Kelman is a long-time supporter and friend. Whenever I’m in north London I try to visit, and always find an inspirational book or two. (Yesterday it was a collection of John La Rose’s essays, and Myal by Jamaican novelist Erna Brodber.)

At the end of 2021, it looked like New Beacon might have to close: the pandemic had reduced footfall to a critical level. A crowdfunder earned it a reprieve, and now the shelves are fully stocked again with carefully curated, hard-to-find books. Well worth the tube journey – even in 30-degree heat.

Yes, I checked out some London cheese and wine shops too. But it was New Beacon Books that was the shining light of my visit.

You can visit New Beacon’s website here.

This diary appeared in The Orcadian on 14th June 2023. A new one appears weekly. I post them in this blog a few days after each newspaper appearance, with added illustrations., and occasional small corrections or additions