Barbados-born Dr Busby (1899–1980)[12][13] was a lifelong friend of Kwame Nkrumah's mentor George Padmore[14] and attended school in Trinidad with C. L. R. James at Queen's Royal College, winning the Island Scholarship, which enabled him to travel to Britain in 1919 to study medicine.

[17][18] Through her maternal line, she is a cousin of BBC newscaster Moira Stuart,[19][20][21] and her grandfather was Dominica-born George James Christian (1869–1940),[22] a delegate at the First Pan-African Conference in London in 1900,[23][24] who migrated to the Gold Coast in 1902.

[27][28] After passing her O-levels there aged 14, Busby left school at 15,[29] went back to Ghana and took her A-levels at 16,[30] then spent a year at a college in Cambridge so as not to begin university too young.

"[36] She was Allison & Busby's Editorial Director for 20 years,[37] publishing many notable authors including Sam Greenlee (author of The Spook Who Sat by the Door, the first novel published by A & B, in 1969),[38][39] C. L. R. James,[40] Buchi Emecheta,[41][42] Chester Himes, George Lamming, Roy Heath, Ishmael Reed, John Edgar Wideman, Nuruddin Farah, Rosa Guy, Val Wilmer, Colin MacInnes, H. Rap Brown, Julius Lester, Geoffrey Grigson, Edward Blishen, Dermot Healy, Adrian Mitchell, Matthew Sweeney, Jill Murphy, Christine Qunta, Michael Horovitz, Alexandra Kollontai, Gordon Williams, Alan Burns, Carlos Moore, Michèle Roberts, Molefe Pheto, Arthur Maimane, Maurice Nyagumbo, Giles Gordon, Claire Rayner, Clive Sinclair, Mineke Schipper, Chris Searle, Richard Stark, James Ellroy, Hunter S. Thompson, Margaret Thomson Davis, B. Traven, Alexis Lykiard, Tom Mallin, Jack Trevor Story, Michael Moorcock, Mervyn Peake, John Clute, Julian Savarin, Ralph de Boissière, Andrew Salkey, Harriet E. Wilson, and Miyamoto Musashi.

[33][27] Busby was subsequently editorial director of Earthscan (publishing titles by Han Suyin, Frantz Fanon, Albert Memmi, René Dumont, Carolina Maria de Jesus, and others),[37] before pursuing a freelance career as an editor, writer, and critic, since the early 1990s.

[43] As a journalist, she has written for The Guardian (mainly book reviews[44][45][46][47] or obituaries of artists and activists including Jessica Huntley, Buzz Johnson, Jayne Cortez, Jan Carew, Rosa Guy, Gwendolyn Brooks, June Jordan, Toni Cade Bambara, Florynce Kennedy, Barry Reckord, Frank Crichlow, Connie Mark, Glenn Thompson, August Wilson, Pearl Connor-Mogotsi, Geraldine Connor, Binyavanga Wainaina, bell hooks and Biyi Bandele),[48] The Observer,[49] The Independent,[50] The Sunday Times,[51] the New Statesman,[52] and elsewhere, for both the general press and specialist journals.

Kadija Sesay, 2011),[79] James Barnor: Ever Young (2015),[80] If I Could Tell You Just One Thing...: Encounters with Remarkable People and Their Most Valuable Advice (by Richard Reed, 2016),[81][82] Slay in Your Lane: The Black Girl Bible (by Elizabeth Uviebinené and Yomi Adegoke, 2018),[83] and Chris Fite-Wassilak's The Artist in Time (July 2020).

Marie Umeh, 1996), Beyond Words: South African Poetics (with Keorapetse Kgositsile, Don Mattera, Lebo Mashile and Phillippa Yaa de Villiers, 2009),[87] and To Sweeten Bitter (2017) by Raymond Antrobus.

[90][91] The 2023 volume Empire Windrush: Reflections on 75 Years & More of the Black British Experience, edited by Onyekachi Wambu, includes a Preface by Busby,[92] as does Blazing Trails (2023) by Gus John.

[15] Her abridgements and dramatisations for BBC Radio include books by C. L. R. James,[100] Jean Rhys,[101] Wole Soyinka,[102] Timothy Mo,[103] Sam Selvon,[104] Walter Mosley,[105] Henry Louis Gates,[106] Lawrence Scott[107] and Simi Bedford.

[108] Busby's play based on C. L. R. James's novel Minty Alley, and produced by Pam Fraser Solomon, was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1998,[109][110] winning a Commission for Racial Equality "Race in the Media Award" (RIMA) in 1999.

[134][135] In 2014, following the death of Maya Angelou, Busby scripted a major tribute entitled Maya Angelou: A Celebration,[136] which took place on 5 October at the Royal Festival Hall during the Southbank Centre's London Literature Festival; directed by Paulette Randall, and chaired by Jon Snow and Moira Stuart, the celebration featured contributions from artists including Adjoa Andoh, Angel Coulby, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Nicola Hughes, Ella Odedina, NITROvox, Roderick Williams and Ayanna Witter-Johnson.

[137][138][139][140] In June 2021, Busby appeared on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, with her choices of music including "7 Seconds" by Youssou N'Dour and Neneh Cherry, David Rudder's "Haiti I Am Sorry", and "My Baby Just Cares For Me" by Nina Simone.

[141][142] She has worked continuously for diversity within the publishing industry, writing in a 1984 article in the New Statesman: "Is it enough to respond to a demand for books reflecting the presence of 'ethnic minorities' while perpetuating a system which does not actively encourage their involvement at all levels?

[145][146] Other members of this multi-racial group, which held a conference in November 1987 particularly to highlight publishing as an option for Black women,[147] included Lennie Goodings, Maggie Scott, Ros de Lanerolle, Yvonne Collymore, Paula Kahn, Toks Williams, Kothai Christie, and Jacqui Roach.

[181] She has served on the boards or in advisory positions for other cultural organisations, including the Drum Arts Centre (co-founded in 1973 by Cy Grant),[182] The Africa Centre, London, English PEN, the Royal Literary Fund, the African & Caribbean Music Circuit, the Hackney Empire theatre, the Organization of Women Writers of Africa,[183] the Etisalat Prize for Literature (as patron, alongside Ama Ata Aidoo, Dele Olojede, Ellah Allfrey, Kole Omotoso and Zakes Mda),[184][185] Nubian Jak Community Trust, and Wasafiri magazine.

[199] Bustle magazine included Busby with Mary Prince, Claudia Jones, Evelyn Dove, Olive Morris, Olivette Otele, and Shirley Thompson on a list of "7 Black British Women Throughout History That Deserve To Be Household Names In 2019".

[200] Busby was also named by the Evening Standard on a list of 14 "Inspirational black British women throughout history" (alongside Mary Seacole, Claudia Jones, Adelaide Hall, Olive Morris, Joan Armatrading, Tessa Sanderson, Doreen Lawrence, Maggie Aderin-Pocock, Sharon White, Malorie Blackman, Diane Abbott, Zadie Smith and Connie Mark).

"[224] She has been awarded a number of honorary degrees including from the Open University,[225] SOAS,[226] and from Royal Holloway, where the conferral took place in June 2021 with the oration being given by Professor Lavinia Greenlaw.