'irreverent, Spirited ... A Seriously Funny Novel' New York Review Of Books Sitting In His Cramped Basement Room In Brixton, Battersby Dreams Of Money, Women, A T-bone Steak - And A Place To Call His Own. So He And A Group Of Friends Decide To Save Up And Buy A House Together. But Amid Grasping Landlords, The Temptations Of Spending Money And The Less-than-welcoming Attitude Of The Mother Country, Can This Motley Group Of Hustlers And Schemers, Trinidadians And Jamaicans, Men And Women Make Their Dreams A Reality? 'selvon's Meticulously Observed Narratives Of Displaced Londoners' Lives Created A Template For How To Write About Migrant, And Postmigrant, London For Countless Writers Who Have Followed In His Wake, Including Hanif Kureishi And Zadie Smith' Caryl Phillips