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Alexandra Sheppard is bringing the magic of the Greek Gods to North London
I meet Alexandra Sheppard on a sweltering September evening. She’s travelled down from North London by bus to meet me at the Southbank Centre. She’s dressed in denim dungarees, her hair is pulled into a top knot and she has that baby-faced youthfulness that probably gets her carded all the time. We’ve met once before, at a Black Girls Book Club event where I...
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Christmas Baking with Lorraine Pascale
I baked Lorraine’s White Chocolate & Cherry Torte with a Crème Fraiche Chantilly. It was surprisingly easy!
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10 Tips for Living Your Best Life at the Aké Arts & Book Festival
October 2018 was blessed. After years of longing, the stars finally aligned and I was able to pull together the funds and time to attend the Aké Arts & Book Festival. I’m only a little biased when I state with (Nigerian) pride that Aké is a bright jewel in the literary calendar. The four-day festival was friendly, well organised, inspiring and thought-provoking. What more...
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Video Book Review: Dust
A young man is gunned down in Nairobi. His murder uncovers buried family secrets and the truths ripple back through the generations that have formed post-colonial Kenya. Incredible novel by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor.
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21 British Children’s Authors (of Colour) You Should Know
In July a writer friend posted a link to the report: Reflecting Realities – A Survey of Ethnic Representation within UK Children’s Literature 2017. The report was created by the CLPE (Centre for Literacy in Primary Education) and aimed to explore the extent and quality of ethnic representation in children’s publishing in the UK. The results were dire. The report concluded that of 9,115...
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Alyssa Cole is Expanding the Boundaries of Romance
At one point in 2017 it felt like Alyssa Cole’s name was coming at me from every direction. She’d pop up in every Twitter discussion that even vaguely mentioned a romance must-read list, whether the sub category was contemporary, historical or science fiction. During my 10 leagues deep obsession with the Hamilton musical I discovered Cole had contributed to a romance anthology called Hamilton’s...
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How Racism in ‘Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry’ mirrors life in the UK
I was in primary school when I first read Mildred D Taylor’s Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. Cassie Logan was my hero. Dark skinned, kinky haired, bold and outspoken. However, her life with her three siblings, school-teacher mother, farmer father and Big Ma was something I did not envy, mired as it was by extreme poverty and violent, overt racism. It seemed a...
