The British Empire is no more, but at its height colonial subjects regarded Britain as the centre, a place of pilgrimage, if not residence. This collection of original essays brings together the distilled experiences of fourteen very different writers from the Caribbean, Africa and the Indian subcontinent. All started life in the former colonies and have either spent extended periods in Britain or settled there - and all have enriched British literature with new themes and ways of seeing, and an exuberant use of language. Their accounts - reflective, anecdotal, autobiographical - of their very different cultural journeys and of how living in Britain has influenced their writing creates a rich medley of voices.