So, after discovering new and exciting books, or maybe learning about an author from the past who should have been on our radar, the next step was trying to source the book. Not every book is online.
Not every book is in stock in your local bookshop. So there was a lot of sleuthing and again, Instagram was a lifeline on this particular issue.
Libraries were going to be the best way to access books without breaking the bank, but here again, it wasn't always straightforward. The state of UK Libraries is a separate issue, but in our experience, even some of the "classics" by black authors just were not standard issue in most libraries, not even close.
If we do not study these books in schools, do not hear about them in daily life, do not realise that many black experts in many fields write books, scholars, scientists, actors, musicians, novelists, artists, poets, we risk thinking that it cannot be done and that we as a people have nothing to say. Nothing could be further from the truth.