Inglan is a bitch
dere's no escapin' it
Inglan is a bitch
dere's no runnin' whey fram it.

Linton Kwesi Johnson's is just one of the many perspectives on England collected together in Extravagant Strangers: A Literature of Belonging. As the title implies, the contributors come from "outside" of Britain. Johnson was born in Jamaica, and there are pieces by Rudyard Kipling and William Makepeace Thackeray (both born in India); Trinidadian V.S. Naipaul; New Zealander Katherine Mansfield; early slave narratives by Olaudah Equiano, Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, and Ignatius Sancho. There are also entries from the latest crop of non-British-born writers such as Salman Rushdie, Kazuo Ishiguro, and William Boyd, to name just a few. Edited by Caryl Phillips--himself an outsider, born in the West Indies--the collection attempts to identify just what it means to be British. As he writes in his introduction, "For British writers not born in Britain, the question of 'belonging' surfaces in their work in a variety of ways.... However, out of the tension between the individual and his or her society--in this case British--the finest writing is often produced."

Phillips points out that race, class, gender, and historical circumstances also affect the writer--obviously, the freed slave Ukawsaw Gronniosaw coming to England in the early 17th century would have a far different experience than the Anglo-Indian Kipling in the 19th century or the Japanese-born Ishiguro in the 20th. Nevertheless, there is something universal about all the experiences and observations noted here--from Thackeray's satirical exposé of British snobbery, "A Word About Dinners," to V.S. Naipaul's account of his first visit to England during which he "lost the gift of fantasy, the dream of the future, the far-off place where I was going." Extravagant Strangers is a fascinating exploration of British culture across time, race, and gender. It's also a terrific sampler of great writing, one that shouldn't be missed. --Alix Wilber

From Publishers Weekly
This engaging, disturbing anthology collects short pieces, primarily fiction, but also prose and poetry, by British writers not born in Britain. Editor Phillips (The Nature of Blood) has an agenda: to illustrate that "Britain has been forged in the crucible of fusion?of hybridity," that is, by the intersection of various cultures. While some of the included writers are well known for origins outside of Great Britain (Joseph Conrad, V.S. Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, Jean Rhys and Kazuo Ishiguro), others (William Thackeray, T.S. Eliot, George Orwell and Doris Lessing) aren't automatically thought of as being born away from the Blessed Isle. Alongside such luminaries are many obscure but worthy scribes, like 18th-century ex-slave Ignatius Sancho, early 20th-century Trindadian cultural critic C.L.R. James and contemporary fiction writers Christopher Hope, Timothy Mo, Romesh Gunesekera and Ben Okri. Despite the subtitle, most of the pieces deal with the sense of apartness, of difference, rather than of belonging. Sancho writes a letter to Laurence Sterne, asking the most popular novelist of his day to use his pen to strike a blow against slavery. George Orwell reports firsthand on how the poor are despised and mistreated. Fascinating throughout, the collection documents both the ways?from enslavement to racism to mere social snobbery?that certain groups have been treated as outcasts, and the ingenious, imaginative and often troubling responses writers have found to this exclusion. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Award-winning novelist Phillips contends that "English literature has, for at least 200 years, been shaped and influenced by outsiders." No one would be surprised to hear this about American writing, but Phillips is referring specifically to Britain. He proves his point with this anthology of works by nearly 40 British writers, none of whom were born in Britain. From black writers who emerged in the wake of the slave trade, through writers born in the colonies, to those who descended from both the colonizers and the colonized, Phillips chooses short pieces or excerpts, introduces each writer with a deft page or two, and then sets the piece in context with a concise paragraph. Familiar names include Joseph Conrad, T.S. Eliot, George Orwell, Doris Lessing, V.S. Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, and Kazuo Ishiguro. Recommended for academic libraries.?Mary Paumier Jones, Westminster P.L., COCopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Caryl Phillips has collected writings by thirty-nine extravagant strangers: British writers who were born outside of Britain and see it with clear and critical eyes. These voices prove that English literature, far from being pure or homogenous, has in fact been shaped and influenced by outsiders for over two hundred years. The greatest literature is often born out of irreconcilable tensions between a writer and his or her society.

FROM THE CRITICS

Anderson Tepper