61. Bernardine Evaristo Introduces us to Five Forgotten Black Writers

On this week’s podcast, we were honoured to talk to Bernardine Evaristo about the project she’s spearheading with Penguin to bring back forgotten black writers into circulation and help reconfigure black British literary history. She tells us about five reprinted works of non-fiction, which she’s chosen and written the introductions for, and why it’s so important that their stories are retold today.

The books are A Black Boy at Eton by Dillibe Onyeama, Growing Out: Black Hair and Black Pride in the Swinging 60s by Barbara Blake Hannah, Britons Through Negro Spectacles by A.B.C Merriman- Labor, My Fathers’ Daughter by Hannah-Azieb Pool (highly recommended as a riveting page-turner about a young adopted woman going to Eritrea to meet her real father and huge extended family) and Sequins for a Ragged Hem by Amryl Johnson.

We go on to have an inspiring conversation with Bernardine about how she’s used her platform as the 2019 Booker Prize Winner for Girl, Woman, Other to champion black writing. She tells us that she’s now going to be a little less visible as she gets to work on her next novel. Watch this space!

We also talk to Alice Insley, co-curator of Hogarth in Europe at Tate Britain. We discuss the controversy that the commentary that accompanying the exhibition has pprovoked, many critics claiming it was gratuitously ‘woke’. Listen in to hear what Alice has to say about it – and whatever anyone thinks about the commentary, we all agree that the paintings are superb and the exhibition is well worth a visit to see close up the details of Hogarth’s much loved, brilliant works. The exhibition runs till 20th March.

Produced by Audio Coast