The Lonely Londoners is a novel by Trinidadian writer Samuel Selvon, first published in 1956. It depicts the lives of various West Indian immigrants, showing their efforts to build a life in England.
The novel focuses on a Trinidadian man named Moses who has lived in London longer than any of the other members of his community. He offers recent immigrants pieces of advice about finding work, saving money, and staying out of trouble. Through him, the reader is introduced to other individuals in the book whose stories are recounted in a non-linear fashion. The novel functions more as a series of character studies, offering episodes in the lives of various West Indian individuals. In one storyline, the narrator describes a man named Cap who is known for being popular with women. He gets married to a French woman and then ends up leaving her cruelly. In another, the narrator depicts the anxious struggle of a man named Harris who plans parties in the community and constantly feels that his air of respectability is under threat by his friends. He throws one particular party that quickly grows out of hand. As the book continues and these various threads weave in and out of each other, Selvon constructs a patchwork portrait of West Indian life in London during the 1950s.
Upon its publication in 1956, the book received positive reviews from critics, who praised the nuance of its language and its unflinching portrayal of racial prejudice. In a review for The Independent, Andrea Henry wrote that the book "tells with humour, realism and pathos an intimate story of the capital's first West Indian immigrants. Home was a confused issue: partly England, partly the country of their birth. Focusing on Notting Hill, Selvon perfectly captured the tug of both places on the heartstrings. London was bright, if smog-filled, with the new estates and the promise of work as magnates.”
