The Lonely Londoners

The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon

Reviewed by Linda
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This novel by Sam Selvon may be small in size but is huge in impact. Set in the 1950s, we meet a group of West Indian men arriving in London to establish the "dream" life.
Having arrived from Trinidad 10 years prior, our narrator Moses, is witty, wise and established, talking to the reader in his native dialect. I love that the editors didn't water the dialogue for the western palate. Despite the bleak title, the writing in this book is far from expected, it's a series of snapshots of the different seasons of an immigrant in 50s London, the weather, the food, the British hospitality, humour, women, and racism all packed into one.

Through Moses, we meet a series of new migrants including, Galahad, Big City, Five Past, and Cap who arrived together all in search of the same thing. I enjoyed getting to know each of the characters, each one having their own time to shine in this very short book but despite their same circumstances, the group of men are not to be deemed similar. I think this is something the author set out to achieve.

The description of London is deeply nostalgic, staying in a hostel in Earls Court, working in Oxford Street, and riding on the 46 bus on Chepstow Road and Westbourne Grove to Waterloo. In some ways, this is a love letter to London: a London after the war, a London that transforms in the summer in Hyde Park, but a London that is hostile in winter and hostile to its visitors.

I wanted to say that this book was important for writing and reading at the time it was published in 1956, but at the present time when migration is coined invasive by foreign ministers, this book couldn't be more pertinent.