Finding sanctuary on our shores

Title: This Land of Promise

A history of refugees and exiles in Britain

Author: Matthew Lockwood

Publisher William Collins; 2024

ISBN: 978-0-00-844256-9

Price: £30 (hardback)

This Land of Promise is a sweeping, in-depth portrayal of immigration through the lens of individuals, families and groups who have found refuge on our shores over the centuries and who have helped shaped Britain as we know it today.

The word refugee was first coined in the seventeenth century and was applied to the Huguenots who fled religious persecution in France. Among these were the Houbelon brothers, successful businessmen from Lille, who went on to prosper and flourish in London. In 1694. John Houblon (they had, by then, dropped the ‘e’) became the first Governor of the Bank of England, with three of his brothers becoming its first directors.

Mary Prince, born into slavery in Bermuda in 1788, had been sold several times since the age of 12 and had had an appalling life. Determined to come to Britain, in the mistaken belief that slaves were free once on British soil, she accompanied her deeply unpleasant owners to London in 1828. Eventually escaping, she found support and help from the Anti-Slavery Society. Her autobiography, published in 1831, was an instant success, quickly going through three reprints, and inspired many Britons, particularly women, to support the anti-slavery movement.

There are too many others to go into detail about, but among them are Karl Marx, who led a hand-to-mouth existence in London; the gripping story of Sun Yat-sen, the father of modern-day China; the more than 250,000 desperate Belgians who fled WW1 atrocities; the heart-rending story of 11-year-old Liesl who arrived by Kindertransport in December 1938; and Farrokh Bulsara, who, with his family, had fled the violent revolution in Zanzibar in 1964, and who went on to reinvent himself as the fabulous Freddie Mercury.

This is not a book to skim read – skip one or two sentences and you will almost certainly miss some important information. There are plenty of dates and statistics for those who like such things but it is the individual stories, and the history behind them, which, to me, make this such an absorbing read.

Whatever your views on the immigration policies of successive governments today, and the debate surrounding those seeking sanctuary here, Lockwood sympathetically demonstrates that, historically, Britons have, by and large, welcomed refugees and exiles. Of course, there always have been, and always will be, dissenters (for example, Enoch Powell’s ‘rivers of blood’ speech) which Lockwood also addresses.

This Land of Promise is available electronically and in hardback. The paperback will be published in June 2025.

Tessa Briggs