An African Gentleman in Edwardian Britain is the story of a young, ambitious high-flying Sierra Leonean, A. B. C. Merriman-Labor, who came to Britain to further his legal career by qualifying as a barrister. However, he readily eschewed a future of practising at the Bar and, instead, concentrated on fulfilling his literary ambition to become the "Negro Mark Twain". 

Spanning a decade - 1909 to 1919 - the book incorporates his self-published satire, Britons Through Negro Spectacles, and presents an in-depth critique of the reviews and reception of Britons in England and Africa respectively. 

After pinning his hopes and dwindling resources on Britons to establish him as a literary heavyweight, as well as his fortune, the book traces his predicament post publication, and the harsh realities faced in navigating the complexities of life in Edwardian Britain from the perspective of a Black man.