The Refuge and the Fortress

In the 75th anniversary of CARA (Council for Assisting Refugee Academics), this book explores the experiences and achievements of refugee academics and their rescuers to recount Britain's past relationship with overseas victims of persecution, and as vital questions about our present-day attitudes towards immigration and asylum.

Longlisted for the Orwell Prize 2009

'This is a story of tragedy and triumph: tragedy, in the expulsion of eminent scholars from their home countries; triumph, in their rescue by CARA to achieve even greater renown in this country.' - The Right Honourable Lord Bingham of Cornhill, Senior Law Lord

'This book is an exhortation for all of us to work harder to ensure that people arriving in our country seeking asylum are treated with fairness, humanity, and in accordance with international law.' - Dr Astrid Bonfield, Chief Executive, The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund

'This is a stimulating book that should be read by all who mask the truth behind sensationalist headlines.' - Julia Pascal, The Independent

'Seabrook writes with his usual blazing honesty and absorbing detail.' Illtyd Harrington, Islington Tribune

'...an informative overview of official policies and attitudes towards refugees over the last century.' - Times Literary Supplement

'A challenging and illuminating read.' - Choice Magazine

'...an interesting and useful book which may help provide readers with new arguments against the myth of "soft-touch Britain"'. - Jo Wilding, Peace News

'Jeremy Seabrook's The Refuge and the Fortress surveys the UK's role as a place of asylum since the 1930s and provides a probing analysis of the challenges faced by scholarly refugees in the globalised 21st century...Seabrook's evocative and often chilling life histories of the society's beneficiaries provide a powerful reminder of the costs of Fortress Britain's reluctance to welcome victims of contemporary extremist regimes. The sheer waste of academic talent that ensues - for the UK and the wider world - is sobering.' - Margot Finn, Times Higher Education

'Seabrook excels in giving a voice to suffering humanity, and in this book he has done it again. [...] the book is an endlessly fascinating, heartbreaking and heartening account of the many lives touched by CARA.' - Frances Webber, Race & Class

JEREMY SEABROOK is a former teacher, social worker, journalist and playwright, contributor to the Guardian, New Internationalist and the Statesman in Kolkata. He is the author of 40 books, dealing with social and economic justice and international development. Among the most recent are Children of Other Worlds (child labour), Travels in the Sex Trade (sex tourism), Love in a Different Climate (same-sex relationships, India), Consuming Cultures,( globalization and local lives).