Colin Grant | Granta

Colin Grant

Colin Grant is an author of six books. They include: Negro with a Hat: The Rise and Fall of Marcus Garvey; and a group biography of the Wailers, I&I, The Natural Mystics. His memoir, Bageye at the Wheel, was shortlisted for the Pen/Ackerley Prize, 2013. Grant’s history of epilepsy, A Smell of Burning, was a Sunday Times Book of the Year 2016. His latest memoir, I’m Black So You Don’t Have to Be, was published by Jonathan Cape in January 2023. Image © Maya Elsie 

Colin Grant on Granta.com

Essays & Memoir | The Online Edition
Essays & Memoir | The Online Edition

Notes on Craft

Colin Grant

‘Always I tell myself: yes, you transmit but do they, the readers, receive?’

Colin Grant on distilling truth in memoir.

Essays & Memoir | The Online Edition
Essays & Memoir | The Online Edition

I’m Black So You Don’t Have to Be

Colin Grant

'Can the black author really write out of her or his colour? In writing about black characters can they ever escape race?' Colin Grant looks at the evolution of racial politics.

Essays & Memoir | Issue 140 padlock
Essays & Memoir | Issue 140 padlock

The Recall of Herman Harcourt

Colin Grant

‘I had the queer feeling of looking into a mirror of the projected future, of perhaps seeing how easily his fall could be a rehearsal for my own.’

Essays & Memoir | Issue 140
Essays & Memoir | Issue 140

The Binoculars of Jah

Colin Grant

‘No matter how I attempted to interpret the email, it could only be read in one way: I was out of the Bunny Wailer club. Jah Bunny had put a curse on me.’

Essays & Memoir | Issue 140
Essays & Memoir | Issue 140

Barnby Dun

Colin Grant

‘Restored nature would be a phantom of its former self. The experience would be akin to visiting a wildlife park.’

Essays & Memoir | Issue 120
Essays & Memoir | Issue 120

Graft vs. Host

Colin Grant

‘Oftentimes it took so long to ferry the injured that rather than send an ambulance the A&E doctors might as well have sent a hearse.’

Essays & Memoir | Issue 111 padlock
Essays & Memoir | Issue 111 padlock

Lino

Colin Grant

‘It was a big news day. We were going to look for a piece of lino for the back room.’

Essays & Memoir | Issue 111
Essays & Memoir | Issue 111

I & I: The Natural Mystics

Colin Grant

‘Such a spectacle could not have been envisaged ten years previously at the time of Bob Marley’s death from cancer.’

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