Inspector Dreadlock Holmes/stories

In the title story, Inspector Dreadlock Holmes and his sidekick Rudeyard Fly are sent for by the Criminal Investigation Department of Middleham-by-Sea – a little town known for tea shops, pet shops, florist shops. Keen to kickstart their diversity policy, the Department sends for two black law enforcers who both think this an opportunity too good to miss: a chance to prove their cross-cultural mettle and elucidate the death of Lord Montagu, a controversial political figure possibly killed by a deadly vegetable.

In other stories, an Anansi spider stows away on the Windrush, cod and chips are usurped by chicken tikka marsala, and a white landscape gardener who admires Capability Brown has a mixed race child who is dispossessed by voices from history, including that of Martin Luther King.

Surreal and playful, John Agard’s stories also reveal hidden truths that subtly change our view of how we are and where we come from.