Black British writing is a category, and a concept, that has come into its own only since the 1980s, despite the fact that black people have been living and writing in Britain for hundreds of years. To talk today about “black British writing”—as opposed to “black writing in Britain”—is, first, to point to the existence of a substantial body of work in various genres and, second, to place a frame around such work that identifies Britishness as one of its defining characteristics. The idea of black British writing expands traditional concepts of British literature and identity, raising questions about both what it means to be British and what it means to be black in a British context.