Paul Robeson and W. E. B. Du Bois in London

The late 1950s was an era of profound social and political change. Characterised by McCarthyism and the cold war and overshadowed by the atomic bomb, the period was also marked by the growing momentum of anti-colonial struggles and by mass population movements worldwide, including Commonwealth immigration to Britain. Jan Carew, Guyanese novelist and historian, playwright, poet, one-time actor and always activist, lived in London for much of that time. He was uniquely placed, from the breadth of his concerns, to respond to and involve himself in the major cultural and political currents of the period. What follows is a brief extract from his ongoing memoirs.