‘When we arrived here we wanted to become British, but because of racism we weren’t allowed’ – Linton Kwesi Johnson

The Jamaican-born poet Linton Kwesi Johnson has been awarded the prestigious PEN Pinter prize. The judges hailed his work, saying he had had a “colossal and multi-generational impact on the cultural landscape of the last half century”.

Linton Kwesi Johnson has chronicled the experience of Black people in Britain since the 1970s, dealing with issues of injustice, immigration and workers’ rights – many of which are as relevant today as ever.