Faber Members get 10% off their first order

The Windrush Betrayal (Hardback)

Amelia Gentleman

Longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize 2019: a searing portrait of Britain’s hostile environment by the journalist behind the Windrush exposé.

Format
Hardback
ISBN
9781783351848
Date Published
19.09.2019
Delivery
All orders are sent via Royal Mail and are tracked: choose from standard or premium delivery.
Summary

A NEW STATESMAN AND SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEAR
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING
LONGLISTED FOR THE
BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE

A searing portrait of Britain’s hostile environment by the journalist behind the Windrush exposé.

‘A timely reminder of what truly great journalists can achieve.’
DAVID OLUSOGA

‘[Gentleman’s] reporting proves why an independent press is so vital.’
RENI EDDO-LODGE

‘A book that keeps you informed and makes you angry.’
GARY YOUNGE

‘It is impossible to overstate the importance of this heartbreaking book.’
JAMES O’BRIEN

How do you pack for a one-way journey back to a country you left when you were eleven and have not visited for fifty years?

Amelia Gentleman’s exposé of the Windrush scandal – where thousands of British citizens were wrongly classified as illegal immigrants with life-shattering consequences – shocked the nation and led to the resignation of Amber Rudd as Home Secretary. Here, Gentleman tells the full story for the first time.

‘Essential . . . a damning indictment.’
SIR LENNY HENRY

‘Gentleman boldly chronicles the devastating reality of a scandal that illegalised, imbruted and abandoned British citizens.’
DAVID LAMMY MP

‘I’m thankful for the truth and hope [. . .] in Amelia Gentleman’s The Windrush Betrayal.’
ALI SMITH

‘A devastating account.’
CLAIRE TOMALIN

Critic Reviews

A timely reminder of why journalism matters and what truly great journalists can achieve. Written with both humanity and humility, it reveals, step-by-step, how one of the most shocking scandals of recent years came about and how it was uncovered while always giving voice to the people who matter most, the victims of the Windrush Scandal themselves.

Professor David Olusoga
Critic Reviews

Gentleman boldly chronicles the devastating reality of a scandal that illegalised, imbruted and abandoned British citizens. With the same tenacity that she used to expose the truth of Windrush in the first place, Gentleman ruthlessly uncovers the crimes that were committed, the injustices that are yet to be rectified and the wounds that might never be healed.

David Lammy MP
Critic Reviews

It is impossible to overstate the importance of this heartbreaking book. Amelia Gentleman details, with painstaking, harrowing clarity, how the unfettered hostility of Theresa May's so-called 'hostile environment' reached into the blameless lives of British residents and left them reeling under the threat of prosecution and even deportation. This incredible story reminds us that we live in an era where power increasingly refuses to listen. The rest of us must.

James O'Brien
Critic Reviews

Gentleman’s reporting marks an important moment for independent, investigative journalism, demonstrating how it can hold power to account in order unequivocally to change people’s lives for the better.

Katharine Viner (Editor-in-Chief, Guardian News & Media)
Critic Reviews

I’m thankful for the truth and the hope.

Ali Smith, New Statesman
Critic Reviews

The Windrush Betrayal reads like dystopian fiction... Many Britons are acquainted with the Windrush persecution. But this book by Amelia Gentleman, the Guardian journalist who broke the story, exposes it in its shocking reality. Gentleman meticulously details the specifics that led to one of the biggest political scandals of the decade... Through first-person accounts from the people affected, The Windrush Betrayal knits together a devastating picture of the human cost of punitive immigration policies... Gentleman's reporting proves why an independent free press is so vital for democracy. The book is dense with facts, but the real thread running through it is a human one.

Reni Eddo-Lodge, Guardian
AmeliaGentleman

Amelia Gentleman is a reporter for the Guardian newspaper. She was named journalist of the year (Press Gazette) and won the 2018 Paul Foot journalism award for her reportage on the Windrush scandal, which led to the downfall of the Home Secretary and the government loosening its ‘hostile environment’ policy for migrants. She has also won the Orwell Prize and…

Read More
AmeliaGentleman
Amelia-Gentleman.jpg