The History of Emigration from Greece ¦ The History of Emigration from Africa ¦ The History of Emigration from Ireland ¦ The History of Emigration from the Indian Subcontinent

This is a well-meaning, well-illustrated, well-researched but ultimately disappointing series. 32 pages from contents to index is not enough to do justice to the vastness of the topics covered and there is an inevitable 'broad-brush' treatment with considerable dependence on the reader bringing a degree of background social, political and geographical knowledge to the text; indeed only your most capable students from about Year 9 up are going to make much of these books.

Africa is probably the strongest as the first half is a coherent account of the slave trade with all its attendant atrocities. However, despite the author's assertion that 'the settling of African Caribbeans in Britain has been one of the greatest movements of African peoples in recent times', we are given only just over one page on the subject which leads me to restate a view I've put forward several times in BfK that what is really needed is a series that looks at the 'who, when and why' of post-war migration to this country enabling children and young people from the minority and majority communities to understand how Britain developed into a multi-cultural society.