I am seeking informants from the Brighton and Hove district for a research project and book on British emigrants to Commonwealth countries since 1970.

In particular, I need to talk to people who emigrated after 1970 and have since returned to Britain.

Last year, I co-authored a book with Alistair Thomson (at Sussex University) on post-war British migration to Australia (1947-1971) entitled Ten Pound Poms: Australia's Invisible Migrants (Manchester University Press).

It tells the story of the post-war generation of emigrants to Australia, including many who returned to Britain following their migration.

Many of these were from the Brighton and Hove region, and there are many more recent "returnees" who are in the same area.

My next book will continue the story over later years, not just for migrants to Australia but elsewhere, especially to Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

In fact, in recent years many British migrants have emigrated successively to more than one country and I am particularly interested in these "modern" return migrants.

If you emigrated to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa or elsewhere and then returned, your story could be vitally important to this new history about modern British mobility.

We are running this project from La Trobe University in Melbourne but I will be visiting the south of England in early April and would like to interview some informants who are willing to talk about their migration experience.

If you are interested, please contact me at the email address J.Hammerton@latrobe.edu.au or by mail to Jim Hammerton, History Program, La Trobe University, Victoria, 3086, Australia.

All responses will be acknowledged and the privacy of informants is strictly protected.

-Jim Hammerton, Emeritus Scholar, History Program, La Trobe University, Australia