It was fantastic to meet Stephen Bourne at the Imperial War Museum during the book signing of his latest book Black Poppies. 

Stephen is a writer, film and social historian specialising in black heritage and gay culture.

Stephen has endorsed this campaign and is one of our prominent supporters.

His best-known book is Black Poppies – Britain’s Black Community and the Great War which was first published by The History Press in 2014 to coincide with the centenary of World War One.

For Black Poppies, Stephen received the Southwark Arts Literature award. In 2019 a new edition was published and in October that year the Booker Prize winner Bernardine Evaristo voted Bourne her Black History Month hero on Facebook.

His latest book aimed at a younger audience

Black Poppies is a new illustrated edition of Black Poppies for young readers with a cover illustration by Tom Clohosy Cole who illustrated Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse.

Stephen explores the extraordinary ways in which Black people helped Britain fight the Great War, on the battlefield and at home, in this new illustrated edition of Black Poppies – The Story of Britain’s Black Community in the First World War (The History Press) for children. Among those we meet are Stephen’s Aunty Esther and Walter Tull, who led soldiers in some of history’s bloodiest battles.

Read more about the book HERE.