Historian, broadcaster and bestselling author David Olusoga reflects on his remarkable career and his contribution to transforming the way Britain understands its past at the Cheltenham Literature Festival.
Olusoga has become one of the country’s most influential public historians, bringing overlooked and often marginalised histories into mainstream British television, publishing and public discussion.
His work has been particularly important in exploring the long presence of Black people in Britain and challenging the idea that Black British history began only with post-war migration.
Through books including Black and British: A Forgotten History, Olusoga has traced the connections between Britain, Africa, the Caribbean, empire, slavery and migration across hundreds of years.
The book accompanied his landmark BBC television series of the same name and helped bring stories that had often remained outside conventional accounts of British history to a much wider audience.
His television work also includes A House Through Time, which uses individual buildings and the lives of their residents to uncover wider stories about British society.
Across both television and writing, Olusoga has demonstrated how family histories, buildings, cities and everyday objects can reveal connections with empire, migration, class and race.
Born in Lagos, Nigeria, and raised in Britain, Olusoga has also spoken openly about his own experiences growing up as a mixed-race child in Britain during the 1970s and 1980s.
At Cheltenham Literature Festival, he will reflect on the books, television programmes and research that have shaped his career and on the importance of bringing forgotten histories into public view.
For Black History Month audiences, this event offers the opportunity to hear directly from one of the leading figures responsible for expanding public understanding of Black British history.
There will also be a book signing following the event.
David Olusoga appears at The Times and Sunday Times Forum at Cheltenham Literature Festival on Sunday 11th October 2026 from 4:45pm to 5:45pm.
Tickets are £23 and £20.
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