In this period, he began writing stories and descriptive pieces, mostly under a variety of pseudonyms, including Michael Wentworth, Esses, Ack-Ack, and Big Buffer.

In 1950, Selvon moved to London, England,[6] where he took menial jobs, eventually working as a clerk for the Indian Embassy, while writing in his spare time.

[8] In the late 1970s, he moved to Alberta, Canada, and found a job teaching creative writing as a visiting professor at the University of Victoria.

His novel A Brighter Sun (1952), detailing the construction of the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway in Trinidad through the eyes of young Indian worker Tiger, was a popular choice on the CXC English Literature syllabus for many years.

The Lonely Londoners, like most of Selvon's later work, focuses on the migration of West Indians to Britain in the 1950s and 1960s, and tells, mostly in anecdotal form, the daily experience of settlers from Africa and the Caribbean.

Selvon also illustrates the panoply of different subcultures that exist within London, as with any major city, due to class and racial boundaries.

In many ways, his books are the precursors to works such as White Teeth (2000) by Zadie Smith and The Buddha of Suburbia (1990) by Hanif Kureishi.

[9] Selvon explained: "When I wrote the novel that became The Lonely Londoners, I tried to recapture a certain quality in West Indian everyday life.