Making Britain

The holidays are over... It's time to return to work.

The big event in the diary is the Making Britain seminar and exhibition at the British Library, September 13 and 14. SALIDAA, of which I'm Chair, is one of the partners in this amazing project that has taken three years to reach fruition with the building of a unique database charting events and reproducing the narratives mapping the movements of the Asian diaspora in Britain from 1850-1950. Believe it or not, there was an active exchange of domicile and cultures - it wasn't all one way. You only have to think back to the Brits glorious welcome for Mahatma Gandhi who studied law at UCL and came back to demand, passively, indpendence for India. Nehru was a Harrow boy who went to Cambridge and visualised Indian and European 'selves'. The Making Britain database goes live the week of the conference: look for links in the press.

The other big event that's taking all my energies is a personal one - the gutting and rebuilding of our new home in Kensal Rise. My daughters have decided it's edgy enough to meet their social needs and I've decided it's warm, friendly and safe, despite recent bleatings by dispossessed Somalis whose complaints led to them being re-homed in Kensington...