Hello and welcome to The Long Wave. I’m Lanre Bakare and I usually cover arts and culture for the Guardian, but I’m taking over the newsletter this week to tell you about my new book, We Were There, a cultural history of Black Britain.
It’s set between 1979 and 1990, covering the rise and premiership of Margaret Thatcher, the UK’s first female prime minister, whose divisive but transformative remodelling of Britain is still felt today – and within that political upheaval, race dominated the headlines. But it was also a time when modern Black British culture was forged. I’ll talk you through five things I learned from my research.
