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Two worlds, connected by the insult of slavery, are explored in this novel - the Caribbean plantation, and England. Set during the uncertain period between the abolition of slavery and the emancipation of the slaves, this is an account of inhumanity - of a self-pronounced Christian nation resistant to the Black religious conversion in case they recognised that all people are equal under God. It is the story of Emily Cartwright, an Englishwoman sent to visit her father's plantation in the West Indies, and of Cambridge, a plantation slave.

Management Teaching use: While this novel is set in the nineteenth century the key issues of slavery and the demise of the sugar industry can be used to kick off discussions on corporate social responsibility. How can a trade, which is clearly wrong to one section of the commercial world, be acceptable to another set of traders? In addition the class might debate whether a practice which is still considered acceptable be realistically prevented by legislation. The inevitable failure of the industry within which the practice is most common is another source of debate. If we allow likely industry life cycles to prevail will all unpalatable trades eventually die naturally through innovation and progress? The comparison with 'green' marketing is an interesting one.

Bert Williams was disappointed early in life when his attempt to enter Stanford University was thwarted by his family's poverty. His early forays into the West Coast entertainment business saw him fare no better. After a time playing African 'savages' in white companies with his friend and theatrical partner-to-be George Walker, they made the agonising decision to 'play the coon'. Off-stage, Williams was a tall, light-skinned man with marked poise and dignity but on-stage he now became a shuffling, inept 'nigger' who pulled a wig of kinky hair over his head, wore blackface make-up, and concealed his hands in gloves. As the new century dawned they were headlining on Broadway and amongst the highest-paid entertainers in the country. But the mask was beginning to overwhelm Williams who felt increasingly degraded by his situation and began to sink into bouts of melancholia and heavy drinking. In 1921, after a lifetime of being denied top-billing because of his colour, his name was in lights as he headlined in the musical comedy 'Under The Bamboo Tree'. He was leading an entirely white company but he was still trapped in blackface. Dancing in the Dark is an outstanding novel as much about the tragedy of race and identity, and the perils of reinvention, as it is about the life of one remarkable man.

This is a journey across Europe in an attempt to clarify the fundamental questions of identity - to 'come to terms with what it is like to feel both of, and not of, Europe'. In a series of snapshots, Caryl Phillips provides an account of an exploration of the heart and mind, and Europe.

Francis Barber, 'given' to the great 18th-century writer Samuel Johnson, afforded an unusual depth of freedom, which, after Johnson's death, would help hasten his wretched demise... Randolph Turpin, Britain's first black world champion boxer, who made history in 1951 by defeating Sugar Ray Robinson, and who ended his life in debt and despair... David Oluwale, a Nigerian stowaway who arrived in Leeds in 1949, the events of whose life called into question the reality of English justice, and whose death at the hands of police in 1969 served as a wake-up call for the entire nation. Each of these men's stories is told in a different, perfectly realized voice. Each illuminates the complexity and drama that lie behind the simple notions of haplessness that have been used to explain the tragedy of their lives. And each explores, in entirely new ways, the themes - at once timeless and urgent - that have been at the heart of all of Caryl Phillips' work: belonging, identity, and race.

Three characters are presented, separated by time and distance, but united by the profound sympathy of the author for their humanity.

In this collection of essays, Caryl Phillips ranges across the Atlantic World he has created and focuses on such diverse topics as: literature; politics; films; and music. He also explores his own position as a writer born into a post-colonial world, and examines his relationship to Britain.

Strange Fruit which was premiered at the Crucible Studio in Sheffield as part of the 1980 autumn season, is a powerful study of a black family caught between two cultures. Vivien Marshall, a schoolteacher, has been alone in England with her two sons, Alvin and Errol, for over twenty years. But, despite their education, and her lifelong hopes of them making it in the mother-country, a schism has developed, which is further aggravated when Alvin returns to England, having attended his grandfather's funeral in the Caribbean. Drawn into this family conflict are two other characters: Vernice, Vivien's neighbour and friend from the West Indies, and Shelly, Errol's English girlfriend.

Aiming to show that the "mongrelization" of Britain and British literature began well before the second half of the 20th century, this selection incorporates 18th-century black writers with direct experience of the slave trade, such as Ignatius Sancho and Olaudah Equiano. It also looks at white writers whose accident of birth took place in a British colony, resulting in a similar sense of ambivalence, whether in the jingoism of a Rudyard Kipling or the social commitment of a George Orwell. And it reflects the emergence of a group of writers who demonstrate the same mixture of attachment and detachment which marks them as products of the British Empire, including V.S. Naipaul and Linton Kwesi Johnson.