London is now a global financial and multicultural hub in which over three hundred languages are spoken. But the history of London has always been a history of immigration.
Panikos Panayi explores the rich and vibrant story of London, from its founding two millennia ago by Roman invaders, to Jewish and German immigrants in the Victorian period, to the Windrush generation invited from Caribbean countries in the twentieth century. He shows how migration has been fundamental to London’s economic, social, political and cultural development.
Migrant City sheds light on the various ways in which newcomers have shaped London life, acting as cheap labour, contributing to the success of its financial sector, its curry houses, and its football clubs. London’s economy has long been driven by migrants, from earlier continental financiers and more recent European Union citizens. Without immigration, fueled by globalization, Panikos Panayi argues, London would not have become the world city it is today.
Panikos Panayi was born in London to Greek Cypriot immigrants and grew up in the multicultural city developing during the 1960s and 1970s. A leading authority on the history of migration, he is Professor of European History at De Montfort University.
Daniel Trilling is a freelance writer and reporter who contributes to publications including The Guardian, London Review of Books and the New York Times. He is an associate lecturer at the London College of Communication where he teaches Creative Storytelling, a course on long-form journalism for second-year undergraduates. He writes mainly about migration, borders and nationalism, but in a past life he was an arts journalist and even did the occasional celebrity interview. He is the author of two books, Lights in the Distance: Exile and Refuge at the Borders of Europe (Picador, 2018) and Bloody Nasty People: The Rise of Britain’s Far Right (Verso, 2012), which was nominated for the 2013 Orwell Prize.
Interested in learning more about Newham Bookshop and some of the people connected with it? We have four lessons for classroom or family use developed from On the Record’s oral history project centered around Newham Bookshop, Writing and Reading Newham. Click here for full details.
We are proud that Newham Bookshop is LoveReading’s Bookshop of the Month. The article features a Q&A with Vivian Archer, which you can read here.
