Ada Ayten Demirovska on her research work ‘’Heritage Voices. Azerbaijani émigrés in the UK’’.

In this book I am covering biographical stories of Azerbaijanis (born in Azerbaijan and emigrated to the UK) starting from the 19th century, World War I, the Red Army invasion of Azerbaijan in 1920, World War II, to the present day. The book will be presented as a collection of stories featuring a wide range of characters such as aristocrats and diplomats, musicians and painters, writers and scientists, soldiers, sportsmen based on archive research, interviews, published memoirs and wider literature.

To name a few: Sir Misha Black OBE (b. Baku 1910) Architect, his brother Max Black (b. Baku 1909) Philosopher, Harold “Boake” Carter (b. Baku 1903) Broadcast news commentator, Manya Benenson Harari (b. Baku 1905) co-founder of Harvill Press, her sister Fira Benenson (b. Baku 1898) Fashion designer, and their elder sister Flora Benenson Solomon OBE (wrote a memoir ‘From Baku to Baker Street’), mother of Peter Benenson founder of Amnesty International, and others.  

Most of them arrived in North London (Finsbury Park, Highgate, etc) as their first point of settlement in the UK and would be known as coming from Russian Empire, not Azerbaijan.

If you have names and stories you would like to share I would love to hear from you; you can contact me by email: [email protected]