Everything you need to know about this valuable new resource
Wordies, we have an exciting update to the website, though some of you may have noticed it already.
The Black British Booklist browser is now live! That means you can search the database for Black British books online. The browser is available to everyone, and I am thrilled to share it with you.
It couldn’t come at a better time. As you may have heard, only 14 Black authors made it to the UK’s top 1000 bestselling authors in 2026 and earned less than in previous years. Increasingly, authors and publishing professionals are being more transparent online about difficulties faced in getting the same opportunities and visibility to get Black books in front of wide audiences as books by white authors. And while there is some good awareness on the issues, change could always come a little faster.
Meanwhile, you can support by using and sharing this resource.
This began as a personal exercise where I was cataloguing books at home as a third gen, Black British Jamaican, curious to see how diverse my shelves were. This led to the creation of a whole database containing hundreds of books by authors identifying as Black British and Black mixed-race. It has been designed to help discover new stories and diversify shelves for anyone who has found getting this sort of information difficult.
With the help of a tech-savvy son, who kindly coded the searchable database using my excel sheet, I have finally added book image links and the ability to search the database according to title, author, genre, or heritage. Browsing is totally free – you don’t need an account, and you don’t need to download an app. You can simply open the page and start exploring (then hopefully feel inspired to buy a new book).
What is the Black British Booklist?
The Black British Booklist is a growing collection of books written by Black British and Black mixed-race authors.
It currently focuses on books from middle grade through to adult fiction and non-fiction, covering everything from fantasy, romance and crime to literary fiction, history, memoir, poetry and young adult books.
You can search the database by:
- Book title
- Author
- Genre
- Heritage, where the author has shared this information publicly
This means you might visit the list looking for a particular author, search for your next fantasy read, explore books by writers of Jamaican or Nigerian heritage (for example), or simply browse until a cover catches your attention.
New books will continue to be added in future updates as I find them or receive submissions from authors or publishers.
Why Did I Create It?
I started the Black British Booklist because finding Black British books is often far more difficult than it should be.
There are plenty of excellent recommendations for books by Black authors from around the world, and I am always happy to see them. However, Black British books are frequently absorbed into much broader categories, making it difficult to find stories rooted in Britain and shaped by our particular histories, communities, cultures, humour and experiences. And as a Black Brit of Jamaican descent, I want to be able to explore stories that represent my own heritage, culture, and experiences too, just as easily as people from other communities can. We all deserve a chance to feel represented and inspired by people we closely identify with, just as we deserve the chance to widen our perspectives by being able to read the experiences of people with different backgrounds and experiences to us. It’s wonderful to be able to see how we are all connected in this human experience, while getting the opportunity to learn and celebrate difference. Few things are more enriching than broadening perspectives.
Black British is not a genre, or a trend when a hot topic comes up, but it is too often treated as such. Black British books are simply books written by people whose voices deserve to be easier to find.
Why visibility matters right now
Recent publishing figures have made the need for this kind of visibility even clearer.
According to figures reported by The Bookseller, only 14 Black authors appeared among the top 1,000 authors in the UK during the first 24 weeks of 2026. Together, those authors earned £2.8 million, representing just 0.9% of the total sales value generated by the top 1,000. se figures do not mean that there are not enough brilliant books by Black authors. They do not mean that readers are uninterested in them. Anyone who has attended a Black book festival, visited a multicultural bookshop or watched an enthusiastic reader recommend a new favourite knows that the appetite is there.
The books exist and so do the readers, but the connection between them is not always being made. The idea that Black books should only be marketed to Black people, who are already a minority, is a mistake, in my mind. People from marginalised communities read diversely as standard, because they will always be presented with majority materials first. Why would the assumption be that people from the majority wouldn’t want the same opportunity to explore rich literary landscapes? Diversity isn’t ‘niche’.
I do understand that marketing budgets are limited, publicity campaigns can be brief, and many books disappear from our timelines and displays within weeks of publication, regardless of the background of the author. But while a book with poor sales by a white author is just a book with poor sales, Black authors are also too often treated as though one successful or unsuccessful book must represent the potential of every Black writer working in the same genre, and that’s when it becomes unfair.
That is why searchable, lasting resources matter. A social media post may disappear from view within a day, but a database allows a book to be found months or years later by the person who has been looking for exactly that story. And with less visibility on award lists and other prizes, having a dedicated space to discover Black British books is so important.
With all of that being said, talking about Black British books doesn’t have to be all about disappointing statistics, publishing barriers, and bemoaning a lack of representation. It can – and should – be a celebration.
How amazing is it that there is so much talent in the UK alone? How exciting is it that you can discover fantasy worlds you have never visited before, meet characters who remind you of people you know, or read a version of British life that rarely appears in the books promoted most heavily?
You do not have to be Black or British to enjoy these stories. You just have to want to read.
Choose a genre you already love and see what appears. Search for a heritage or setting you would like to learn more about. Pick a cover that interests you. Borrow a book from your library, buy it from a bookshop, add it to your wish list, or recommend it to someone else.
Every search helps make these British books more visible. Every review, library request, recommendation and purchase shows that there is an audience for a much wider variety of stories.
Some Ideas of Ways to Use the Black British Booklist
One of the most common problems in conversations about diversity is that people are told to broaden their reading but are not always shown where to begin.
The Black British Booklist gives you somewhere to begin.
You can use it to:
- Find your next read
- Build a reading list for yourself or your book club
- Look for books to recommend to children and teenagers
- Research authors for library displays, articles or reading projects
- Discover books to review on your blog or social media
- Find authors whose work may not have appeared on your usual feeds
- Share recommendations beyond the same small group of widely recognised titles
You can also support the list without spending any money. Visit the database, share the link, tell a librarian or bookseller about it, send it to a friend or use it the next time someone asks for a Black British book recommendation.
Visibility grows when people engage.
Want the full downloadable database?
The searchable version of the Black British Booklist is free for everyone to use.
For the more data-savvy among us, the complete Excel spreadsheet is also available to paid supporters of The Abundant Word.
The downloadable version includes the full database information in one place, making it especially useful for researchers, librarians, educators, booksellers, content creators and enthusiastic readers who want to filter the information themselves, organise their research, add personal notes or keep an editable, offline copy.
Supporters pay £3 per month and receive:
- Access to the full downloadable Excel database
- Early access to additions and updates before they appear on the public viewer
- Occasional themed recommendations and supporter updates
- Behind-the-scenes information about the development of the Booklist and future resources
Most importantly, paid subscriptions help me maintain and expand the Black British Booklist while keeping the searchable version free for everyone.
The database is researched and updated manually by me. Support helps cover the time involved in finding books, checking information, processing submissions, updating records, sourcing images, maintaining the website and creating new resources for readers. And this is only the beginning.
I am incredibly proud of how far the Black British Booklist has come.
I did not initially set out to build a large public resource. I was simply curious about my own bookshelves and frustrated by how difficult it could be to find Black British authors outside of the same familiar recommendations.
Now, the Booklist can help readers, authors, bloggers, teachers, researchers, librarians and booksellers discover just how broad Black British literature really is.
I am also very proud that my son built the searchable database. This has become a real family project, combining my research and love of books with his coding skills, and it is wonderful to see it living properly on the website at last.
The publishing statistics may be sobering, but this is still a happy post because we are not powerless.
We can search. We can borrow. We can buy. We can review. We can recommend. We can share. We can support each other without taking up much time at all. And to everyone who has got this far, I appreciate you.
The Black British Booklist is live, free and ready to explore.
Happy browsing, Wordies!
Visit the Black British Booklist
Become a Supporter
or
Are you a Black British author?
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