Linton Kwesi Johnson is best known for 1975’s Dread Beat an’ Blood, the book of poetry he later recorded as an album, setting the verse against a dub reggae backdrop and releasing it under the moniker Poet and the Roots. More albums followed, with Johnson becoming known as the “dub poet”, though he is also a prolific writer of prose, as illustrated by Time Come, a collection of essays, obituaries and speeches spanning 45 years.
Divided into sections covering music, literature, politics, places and people, the book finds Johnson variously reflecting on 1981’s New Cross fire, in south-east London, in which 13 young Black people died following a suspected racist attack at a party, the impact of Margaret Thatcher’s policies on the Black community and his love of Brixton, alongside appraisals of Wole Soyinka, Bob Marley and Lee “Scratch” Perry.
