We Were There is about a Black Britain that for too long has been unknown and unexplored – the one that exists beyond London. **An Esquire and GQ best book of 2025, an Independent book of the month, and a Guardian book to look forward to** 'A vital corrective that enhances our understanding of black British history' STEVE MCQUEEN From the late 1970s to the early 1990s Britain was in tumult: rocked by Margaret Thatcher’s radical economic policy, the rise of the National Front, widespread civil unrest. With anti-immigration policies in the political mainstream, Black lives were on the frontline of a racial reckoning. But it was also a time of unrivalled Black cultural creation, organising and resistance. This was the crucible in which modern Britain came into existence. We Were There brings into the spotlight for the first time extraordinary Black lives in once-rich cities now home to failing industries: the foundries of Birmingham, the docks of Liverpool and Cardiff, the mills of
