Yiewsley

A spirited and stirring return to the poet's boyhood and the town that made him

This autobiographical collection explores Daljit Nagra's experiences growing up in the white, working-class suburban town of Yiewsley close to Heathrow airport in Outer London, from the 1960s to 80s. As Britain transitions from a postwar manufacturing economy to the Thatcher period and the computer age, we see a young boy navigating childhood friendships and mishaps.

The poems bring to life a bustling house filled with relatives from India who arrived, legally or otherwise, in the UK: "devout realists - already, and always, knuckled into work". They also offer powerful insight into the makings of the writer: the "messy English" at home fusing with Bollywood ballads, Top of the Pops and hymns at school, to develop a voice entirely his own.