What we leave we carry | WritersMosaic

WritersMosaic from the Royal Literary Fund

The series that tells the true-life stories of migration to the UK. It’s a chance to listen to Britain, to hear voices often drowned out by shrill anti-immigrant rhetoric. The series explores richly rewarding stories which complicate the very nature of what we consider British. Drawing from the podcast series, the oral history, What We Leave We Carry will be published by Jonathan Cape in 2026. read less

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Dulani Kulasinghe

Dulani Kulasinghe

Dulani Kulasinghe, who has experienced double migration after leaving Sri Lanka, registers that 'more open conversations in the UK about racism and empire have led to a massive backlash, maybe the last gasp of the beast.'

Episodes

Dulani Kulasinghe

Dulani Kulasinghe

Dulani Kulasinghe, who has experienced double migration after leaving Sri Lanka, registers that 'more open conversations in the UK about racism and empire have led to a massive backlash, maybe the last gasp of the beast.'

The Namibian forensic psychologist Tulela Pea turns a critical eye on the credits and deficits of life in the UK.

The poet and playwright Nick Makoha recalls his dramatic escape from Idi Amin's reign of terror in Uganda.

Gabriela Raluco Andriesei

Gabriela Raluco Andriesei

Gabriela Raluco Andriesi recalls leaving Romania, finding the freedom to be with her partner in Scotland and joining the police force

Neethu Sathyanathan

Neethu Sathyanathan

Neethu Sathyanathan reflects on leaving Kerala in India to come to the UK, and taking to the stage, after five years, to try and make English people laugh.

Mira Erdevički

The Yugoslav-born film director Mira Erdevički talks about how she came to the UK by accident and has stayed for thirty years.

Sonia Bell describes how early on when she moved to the UK, she hardly ever encountered British people

Krupa Mehta reflects on leaving Chennai in India, going back briefly where she met the man who became her husband and her decision to return with him for a new life in the UK.

Lisa Munga reflects on living in transit and coming to terms with a sense of absence in her life after leaving Cameroon.

Hassan Alia remembers the shock of arrival as a refugee from Syria and his dream of becoming a surgeon.

The Serbian writer Goran Gocić reflects on his feelings about the UK, similar to those you might have towards 'an old girl friend you don't want to stumble upon.'

Fang Wang reflecting on leaving China, speaks of her fondness for big-nosed Englishmen and the joy of the crosses on the Hot Cross Bun.

Denisa Gannon reflects on her irrepressible desire to escape prejudice in the Czech republic to become a pioneering Roma lawyer in the UK

Amanda Vilanova

Amanda Vilanova

Amanda Villanova talks about coming from Puerto Rico for a drama course and her decision to stay on and build her life in the UK

Amaal Said talks about feeling Somali without ever having been there

Suzanne Harrington

Suzanne Harrington

Suzanne Harrington tells the story of why she had to leave her repressive homeland in Ireland in the 1980s

Isabelle Dupuy, whose family is originally from Haiti, describes why she first resented paying taxes in Britain till an epiphany about the country's social care and social cohesion that was enabled by the National Health Service

Clementine E Burnley

Clementine E Burnley

Clementine E Burnley reflects on why she wants her money back from the British romantic novelists she read in her youth in Cameroon

Snežana Ćurčić

Snežana Ćurčić reflects on leaving Serbia to coming to the UK, and how she has come to admire British culture

Marjorie Lotfi recalls fleeing Iran as a child in 1978 and how she eventually settled in Scotland where she is celebrated for her poetry