Home Is Not A Place

What is Black Britain? In 2021, award-winning poet Roger Robinson and acclaimed photographer Johny Pitts set out on a coastal journey by red Mini Cooper to explore Black Britishness in the 21st century. From London, they traced the Thames to Tilbury and then clockwise along the coast, visiting towns from Margate to Land’s End, Bristol to Blackpool, and Glasgow to John O’Groats, ending at Southend-on-Sea. Their exploration reveals Black British culture long overlooked in official narratives, and connects it to the wider histories of Empire and transatlantic slavery to which Britain remains tied. Home Is Not a Place is the culmination of this journey: a free-form mix of photography, poetry and essays that reflects on Black Britishness—its complexity, strength and resilience—at the start of a new decade.

The book foregrounds collaboration between a poet and a photographer and presents a multi-voiced portrait of contemporary Black Britain, moving beyond urban centers to capture regional experiences and memories. It invites readers to reconsider national identity through intimate visuals and prose, offering a thoughtful examination of history and culture that shapes everyday life in Britain today.

Features

• A coastal journey exploring Black Britishness
• Combines photography, poetry and essays
• Examines Empire and transatlantic slavery history
• Highlights Black British culture beyond London
• 160 pages, hardcover edition
• Publication by William Collins