This month’s Rare Book Display on the Mezzanine level of the University of Portsmouth’s Library has been curated by Emily who we are lucky to have as one of our Student Assistants. Emily has chosen a fascinating and eclectic range of books.  All are beautiful in their own way.  It was fantastic to have Emily’s choices that reflect her diverse interests. Its an eclectic collection – from beautiful portraits of society figures dressed in their finest, divinely bound books and the poetic writings of Oscar Wilde; to the caricatures of Punch and Judy and finally the macabre Hans Holbein.

Looking back over the Black History Month blog posts from last year, you will find descriptions of the many powerful Black women who successfully overcame the frightening violence and persecution that followed the uptick in racism and fearmongering in the 1950s following the post-war economic collapse. Figures such as Mavis Best who changed the law from a tool of persecution to a standard for equality that gave police sweeping powers of arrest without cause and allowed them to intimidate Black people with the threat of arbitrary arrest and instigated the Race Relations Act of 1965 that replaced colonial laws and established equal rights in law for everyone, regardless of their ethnicity. These figures are so important that I wanted to revisit them again briefly here.

Contrary to the prevailing myth that Black people arrived to an entirely white population mid-20th century on the Windrush, archaeological evidence suggests Britain was ethnically diverse from at least the time the Roman Empire arrived in Britain, facilitating international trade and mobility and have answered the call to aid Britain from every corner of her empire ever since.

 This Summer we have highlighted children’s books found in our Near and Far World Books collection (NFWB@UoP); which are translated from French to English, or are French language books, or bilingual books. Come in and borrow classics such as Tintin …

Explore our Near and far World Books collection this Summer Read more »

Disclaimer While the University takes decolonisation seriously and is taking active steps to make its library collections and curricula more inclusive and representative of a wider range of authors who are women and/or representative of different ethnic and cultural perspectives, …

Decolonising higher education Read more »

The academic study of queer culture and lifestyles has become a popular field of study in several degree courses.  We have a broad range of books about this subject in the University Library.  You can find more resources on diverse …

Exploring queer cultures and lifestyles in the creative arts in Britain c1885-1967 Read more »