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Bageye at the Wheel Colin Grant

Bageye at the Wheel By Colin Grant

Bageye at the Wheel by Colin Grant


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Condition - Very Good
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Summary

Bageye already finds it a struggle to feed his family on his wage from Vauxhall Motors, but now his wife Blossom has set her heart on her sons going to private school and she will not settle for anything less.

This is the story of a father seen through the eyes of his ten-year-old son.

Bageye at the Wheel Summary

Bageye at the Wheel: A 1970s Childhood in Suburbia by Colin Grant

A powerful prescient memoir of life in 1970s Britain for a child of Windrush generation parents.

'This book is a classic' Sunday Telegraph


To his fellow West Indians who assemble every weekend for the all-night poker game at Mrs Knight's, he is always known as Bageye. There aren't very many black men in Luton in 1972 and most of them gather there: Summer Wear, Pioneer, Anxious, Tidy Boots - each has his nickname. Bageye already finds it a struggle to feed his family on his wage from Vauxhall Motors, but now his wife Blossom has set her heart on her sons going to private school and she will not settle for anything less.

This is the story of a father seen through the eyes of his ten-year-old son. It's a wry and gentle comedy about unfulfilling day jobs and late night poker games, of illegal mini-cabs and small-scale drug-dealing.
And it is also about a family struggling to belong in post-Windrush Britain and growing up in a vanished world of 1970s suburbia.

LOOK OUT FOR COLIN GRANT'S NEW BOOK: Homecoming - the first oral history of the Windrush generation

Bageye at the Wheel Reviews

I loved every word * Independent *
[A] vivid and bittersweet window into a vanished world of 1970s suburbia * Metro *
A quietly unforgettable book * Guardian *
A fabulous example of storytelling * Glasgow Herald *
A classic * Spectator *

About Colin Grant

Colin Grant is a historian and author of four highly praised books: Negro with a Hat: The Rise and Fall of Marcus Garvey (2008), I and I: The Natural Mystics Marley, Tosh and Wailer (2011), Bageye at the Wheel (2012), and A Smell of Burning (2016). He is an Associate Fellow in the Centre for Caribbean Studies, and teaches creative non-fiction writing, most recently for Arvon and Sierra Nevada College.

Additional information

GOR004836799
9780099552390
0099552396
Bageye at the Wheel: A 1970s Childhood in Suburbia by Colin Grant
Used - Very Good
Paperback
Vintage Publishing
20130404
288
Short-listed for PEN/ Ackerley Prize 2013 (UK)
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

Customer Reviews - Bageye at the Wheel