Stephen Bourne
Stephen Bourne grew up on a council estate in Peckham and left school at sixteen with no qualifications. Yet thirty five years later he has two degrees and is a leading authority on black British history. He describes his research methods as self-taught, and some years ago he made a conscious decision to give illustrated talks (not lectures) about his work at community venues instead of academic institutions.
In 1991 Stephen co-authored his first book, Aunt Esther's Story, with his adopted aunt, a black seamstress born in London in the Edwardian era. From 1989 to 1992 he was employed by the BFI/BBC as a researcher on Black and White in Colour (BBC tx 1992), a ground-breaking project that unearthed the history of race and representation on British television.
Stephen is the author of two acclaimed histories of British popular cinema, Brief Encounters and Black in the British Frame. In 2008 he researched Keep Smiling Through - Black Londoners on the Home Front 1939-1945, an exhibition for the Cuming Museum in South London, and worked as a historical consultant on the Imperial War Museum’s War to Windrush exhibition. He is currently working on his 11th book, Mother Country – Britain’s Black Community on the Home Front 1939-1945.
Stephen has contributed to The Encyclopaedia of British Film and The Oxford Companion to Black British History, and his publications include (further information can be found at www.stephenbourne.co.uk):
- Brief Encounters – Lesbians and Gays in British Cinema 1930-1971 (Cassell, 1996)
- Black in the British Frame - The Black Experience in British Film and Television (Cassell, 1998; 2nd edition, Continuum, 2001)
- Elisabeth Welch: Soft Lights and Sweet Music (Scarecrow Press, 2005)
- Speak of Me As I Am - The Black Presence in Southwark Since 1600 (Southwark Council, 2005)
- Ethel Waters - Stormy Weather (Scarecrow Press, 2007)
- Butterfly McQueen Remembered (Scarecrow Press, 2008)
- Dr. Harold Moody (Southwark Council, 2008)
