Black and British: An Illustrated History

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From Roman Africans guarding Hadrian's Wall, to an African trumpeter in the court of Henry the Eighth, Black Georgians fighting for the abolition of slavery, Black soldiers fighting for Britain in the First World War, Windrush and right up today.

David was also one of the presenters on the BBC landmark arts series Civilizations alongside Simon Schama and Mary Beard. In 1816, Richard Fitzwilliam donated vast sums of money, literature and art to the University of Cambridge, creating the Museum that is named after him.Black and British was longlisted for the Orwell Prize, shortlisted for the inaugural Jhalak Prize and won the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize. By rethinking our connected and complex histories and looking again through the lens of contemporary art, tomorrow’s story can be one of repair, hope and freedom.

The illustrations and colours are vibrant and really draw the eye to want to read more about what's happening. Hepresents the long-running BBC history series A House Through Time and wrote and presented the multi-award winning BBC series Britain’s Forgotten Slave Owners. But Fitzwilliam’s generosity was only possible because of the wealth his grandfather accumulated in part through the transatlantic slave trade.The dimensions of the book are wider than A4 and need a deeper bookshelf, but no child's bookshelf should be without it. Maps and portrait galleries effortlessly convey how Black and British history have been woven together since the Roman invasion. He often makes work based on popular culture and current events, having created a Star Wars -themed zine and portraits of public figures such as Taika Waititi and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. David is a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Historical Society and sits on the Scott Trust. He is Professor of Public History at the University of Manchester, the author of several books and a columnist for the Observer, The Voice and BBC History Magazine, also writing forthe Guardian and the New Statesman.

It shows how through resisting colonial slavery, people produced new cultures known as the Black Atlantic, that continue to shape our world. Displaying objects and artworks made in West Africa, the Caribbean, South America and Europe, this landmark exhibition also reveals the histories that have been silenced; not just stories of exploitation, but those of resilience and liberation, too.

Acknowledging this story for the first time has led to new discoveries about the objects Fitzwilliam donated, the people who collected them, and the cultures that created them. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. By bringing together collections from across the University of Cambridge’s museums, libraries and colleges with loans from around the world, Black Atlantic: Power, People, Resistance asks new questions about Cambridge’s role in the transatlantic slave trade and looks at how objects and artworks have influenced history and perspectives. David Olusoga’s thought provoking text charts the forgotten histories of Black people in Britain from Roman times right through to the present day.