Jump to content

Colin Grant (author)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by ProudLondoner (talk | contribs) at 13:52, 11 January 2023. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Colin Grant
Born1961 (age 62–63)
Hitchin, England, UK
NationalityEnglish
Occupation(s)Writer, historian
Notable workNegro with a Hat: The Rise and Fall of Marcus Garvey and His Dream of Mother Africa (2008); Bageye at the Wheel (2012)
Websitewww.colingrant.info/colin-grant/4531483161

Colin Grant (born 1961, Hitchin, England) is a British writer of Jamaican origin who is the author of several books, including a 2008 biography of Marcus Garvey entitled Negro with a Hat: The Rise and Fall of Marcus Garvey and His Dream of Mother Africa. Grant is also a historian, Associate Fellow in the Centre for Caribbean Studies[1] and a BBC radio producer.[2]

Biography

Early years

Grant grew up on a council estate in Luton, had a brother Christopher[3] and attended St Columba's College, St Albans.[4]

Career

Grant joined the BBC in 1991, and has worked as a TV script editor and radio producer of arts and science programmes on Radio 4 and on the World Service. In 2009, a two-part documentary about Caribbean Voices (1943–1958) was produced by Grant.[5] He has written and directed plays, including The Clinic, based on the lives of the photojournalists Tim Page and Don McCullin. Among several radio drama-documentaries he has written and produced are African Man of Letters: The Life of Ignatius Sancho, A Fountain of Tears: The Murder of Federico Garcia Lorca, and Move Over Charlie Brown: The Rise of Boondocks.

Grant's first book was the biography Negro with a Hat: The Rise and Fall of Marcus Garvey and His Dream of Mother Africa (2008), described in The Jamaica Gleaner as "magisterial, meticulously researched",[6] in The Independent on Sunday as "drawing on gargantuan research",[7] and in The Guardian as "eminently readable".[8] In 2011, I & I – The Natural Mystics: Marley, Tosh, and Wailer was published, a group biography, about which Lemn Sissay said: "Colin Grant has cleverly personified the birth of a nation, the birth of a religion and the birth of reggae through the lives of Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer."[9] This was followed in 2012 by Bageye at the Wheel, a memoir about growing up Jamaican in Luton that was shortlisted for the PEN/Ackerley Prize.[10]

Grant's next book, a Smell of Burning, was a history of epilepsy and was chosen by The Sunday Times as a Book of the Year 2016.[11] His 2019 book, Homecoming: Voices of the Windrush Generation, was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week.[12]

Personal life

Grant lives in Brighton, UK, he moved their to escape police harassment. He lives there with Jo Alderson and their three children, Jasmine, Maya and Toby.[13]

Books

  • Negro with a Hat: The Rise and Fall of Marcus Garvey and His Dream of Mother Africa,[14] London: Jonathan Cape, 2008; Oxford University Press, United States, 2008
  • I & I – The Natural Mystics: Marley, Tosh, and Wailer,[15] London: Jonathan Cape, 2011; New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2011
  • Bageye at the Wheel,[16] London: Jonathan Cape, 2012
  • A Smell of Burning: The Story of Epilepsy, London: Jonathan Cape, 2017[17]
  • Homecoming: Voices of the Windrush Generation, London: Jonathan Cape, 2019
  • I’m Black So You Don’t Have to Be, London: Jonathan Cape, 2023

References

  1. ^ "Associate Fellows". www2.warwick.ac.uk. Retrieved 28 October 2017.
  2. ^ Official website.
  3. ^ Grant, Colin (2016). Smell of burning. London: Jonathan Cape Ltd. ISBN 9780224101820. OCLC 930824897.
  4. ^ Grant, Colin (2012). Bageye at the Wheel. London: Jonathan Cape. ISBN 9780224091053. OCLC 781997714.
  5. ^ "Caribbean Voices", BBC World Service, 21 July 2009 (archived page).
  6. ^ Adebajo, Adekeye (9 April 2021). "Griots of the Windrush Generation". The Gleaner. Jamaica.
  7. ^ Le Gendre, Kevin (10 February 2008). "Negro With a Hat: The rise and fall of Marcus Garvey, By Colin Grant". The Independent on Sunday.
  8. ^ Busby, Margret (9 February 2008). "A radical enigma". The Guardian.
  9. ^ Sissay, Lemn (13 January 2011). "I & I Natural Mystics, Marley Tosh and Wailer". Lemn Sissay. Retrieved 24 July 2021.
  10. ^ Parks, Carla (17 July 2013). "Colin Grant writes memoir about growing up Jamaican in Luton". Neo-Griot. Retrieved 24 July 2021.
  11. ^ McConnachie, James (4 December 2016). "Books of the year: thought". The Sunday Times.
  12. ^ "Homecoming". BBC Radio 4.
  13. ^ https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jan/11/my-father-ruled-through-pain-colin-grant-on-the-stories-behind-im-black-so-you-dont-have-to-be
  14. ^ Poe, Marshall (29 January 2013). "Colin Grant, 'Negro with a Hat: The Rise and Fall of Marcus Garvey'". New Books in African American Studies. Archived from the original on 29 January 2013. Retrieved 28 October 2017.
  15. ^ Sandhu, Sukhdev (25 May 2012). "Bageye at the Wheel by Colin Grant – review". The Guardian]access-date=28 October 2017. ISSN 0261-3077.
  16. ^ Sharp, Rob (11 May 2012). "A Page in the Life: Colin Grant". The Daily Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 28 October 2017.
  17. ^ Grant, Colin (1 June 2017). "My brother died from epilepsy. I wish he and I had understood the dangers". The Daily Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 28 October 2017.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Colin_Grant_(author)&oldid=1132954570"