This is an introduction of George to the masses. He is the
representative of a whole lost generation (lost to the government and
the British public) who have recently been in the news as the revelation
of who they are comes out.
George tells the story of an 11-year-old Windrush boy who arrived in
England from the island of Jamaica in 1965. The story is narrated in
third-person and speaks of the boy's first experience of being in a cold
country, the absence of an introduction to his new family, the
difficulties he faces as a new boy in a new school, the struggles to
find his place, his resistance in conforming to stereotypical
expectations and his fights to maintain the self-pride and independence
he learnt from his early years in Jamaica.
As George progresses through the school and struggles to assimilate, he
moves from being the outsider to become a cultural educator and a
facilitator of his peers and brings together the different groups within
his association. However, he has difficulty reconciling his family and
church life with his secular associates. Through the boy's eyes, the
narrator depicts how it was at that time for the West Indian immigrant
community in London and the group of unnoticed children whom they
brought from the islands, how they mixed and associated with each other,
their embryonic family and the indigenous population.
