About the Author

British-Nigerian writer Bernardine Evaristo is the award-winning author of eight books and numerous other published and produced works that span the genres of novels, poetry, verse fiction, short fiction, essays, literary criticism, and radio and theatre drama. Her latest novel, Girl, Woman, Other (Hamish Hamilton/Penguin, 2019), was joint winner with Margaret Atwood's The Testaments of the 2019 Booker Prize for Fiction. In 2025 she received the $135,000 Women's Prize Outstanding Contribution Award. She is also an editor of anthologies and special issues of magazines.

She is Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University London. Her first verse novel Lara (1997) was republished by Bloodaxe in 2009. She co-edited the Spread the Word new poets anthology Ten (Bloodaxe Books/The Complete Works, 2010) with Daljit Nagra. Her verse novel The Emperor's Babe was adapted into a BBC Radio 4 play in 2013 and her novella Hello Mum was adapted as a BBC Radio 4 play in 2012. In 2015 she wrote and presented a two-part BBC Radio 4 documentary called Fiery Inspiration: Amiri Baraka and the Black Arts Movement. In 2019 she is the inaugural Woolwich Laureate, appointed by the Greenwich & Docklands International Festival. In 2024 a television adaptation of her novel Mr Loverman (2013) was broadcast as an eight-part BBC One series, with two BAFTAs and US broadcasts following in 2025.

Reviews

'Lara is a wonderful piece - extraordinarily beautiful - rich and evocative - fascinating in its span of time and continents. Like all the best writing, by the end I felt not only a little older, but a lot wiser' - ANDREA LEVY. 'A short, lyrical, vividly real novel-in-verse, dipping 150 years into the past to explore the family history of a British woman with a Nigerian father and English mother. It's funny, touching, informative, passionate and very easy to read. If you're tired of novels that all seem the same, this one's a complete original' - Daily Telegraph (Books of the Year). 'Adventurous, compelling and utterly original' - The Times on Bernardine Evaristo.