POD: Book Clubs

Girl, Woman, Other

Dazzling and masterful

This is Britain as you’ve never read it. This is Britain as it has never been told. From Newcastle to Cornwall, from the birth of the twentieth century to the teens of the twenty-first, Girl, Woman, Other follows a cast of twelve characters on their personal journeys through this country and the last hundred years. They’re each looking for something – a shared past, an unexpected future, a place to call home, somewhere to fit in, a lover, a missed mother, a lost father, even just a touch of hope . . .

Winner of the Booker Prize 2019

‘Beautifully interwoven stories of identity, race, womanhood, and the realities of modern Britain’

Part of our ‘Beyond the Book’ Series. View

START HERE

Profile of Bernardine Evaristo

(14 mins)

Bernardine Evaristo is the first black British woman to win the Booker Prize. Her novel Girl, Woman, Other shared the 2019 award with Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments. Mark Coles has been finding out about Evaristo’s life as an activist, actor and writer. Hear from her, her mum, sister and husband ! BBC Radio 4 Profile

Play

PODCASTS

Author interview with Samira Ahmad

(50 mins )

Samira Ahmed, How I Found My Voice Podcast, speaks to Bernardine about how she found her voice, from growing up in South-East London and setting up the UK’s first black women’s theatre group to the moment she won the Booker for her novel Girl, Woman, Other.

Play

Review of Girl Woman Other

(57 mins)

Better Off Read Podcast. Sinead Overbye talks to Pip Adam about Bernadine Evaristo’s novel ‘Girl, Woman, Other’.

Play

VIDEOS

Bernardine Evaristo

(7 mins)

Bernardine Evaristo tells us about Girl Woman Other and shares the books that inspired her in her 20s to put pen to paper herself an shaped her thinking as a writer.

Watch

The Waterstones Interview with Bernardine Evaristo

(16 mins)

Fresh from her success with the Booker Prize 2019, Waterstones spoke to Bernardine Evaristo about assembling her narrative, the fluidity of modern Britain and what winning the prize means to her.

Watch

Bernardine Evaristo: on character

(4 mins)

Bernadine talks to The Royal Society of Literature about the art of writing, her creative process and her characters.

Watch

ARTICLES

The Guardian Review

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo review, joy as well as struggle by Misha Fraser-Carroll

Read Article

Will Gompertz review

Review of Girl, Woman, Other by Will Gompertz Arts Editor for the BBC.

Read Article

Bernardine Evaristo picks 20 books for International Women’s Day

The Booker Prize-winner highlights contemporary Black British women authors

Read Article

Book Club Questions for Girl, Woman, Other

Sally Flint gives her review and suggests Book Club questions to spark debate.

Read Article

XTRA

Bernardine Evaristo’s Website

My Dark Vanessa

A darkly, compelling debut

My Dark Vanessa is the harrowing tale of fifteen year old Vanessa Wye’s relationship with her forty five year old English teacher, Jacob Strane and the lasting impact it has on her life. Kate Elizabeth Russell resists the insistence on black and white in sexual dealings – instead inhabiting the mind of a vulnerable teenager, offering insight into how black might feel like white, how abuse may be taken for romance – and how this lie could be desperately clung onto into adulthood. My Dark Vanessa reveals a slow journey towards a different understanding

Although this book seems very current, with its themes of manipulation by an older man, Kate Elizabeth Russell actually took 18 years to write this novel that has been labelled Lolita for the #MeToo society. Like American Dirt, this novel too has courted controversy: a seven figure advance, allegations of plagiarism that got it dropped from Oprah’s book club, and questions about whether the novel was based on Russell’s own experience and the implication that she needed to prove her credentials for writing about sexual trauma. It is somewhat ironic that in writing a book about a woman who doesn’t want to come forward about abuse, she is then forced to reveal her own trauma. As she says on her website, “my greatest wish is that My Dark Vanessa will spark conversation about the complexity of coercion, trauma, and victimhood, because while these stories can feel all too familiar, victims are not a monolith and there is no universal experience of sexual violence”. See her website (link in Xtra) for the complete piece.

Stephen King described it as ‘A hard story to read and an even harder one to put down … a package of dynamite’. See what you think.

Part of our ‘Beyond the Book’ Series. View

Gutsy Women

Courage and resilience

Throughout history and around the globe women have overcome the toughest resistance imaginable to win victories that have made progress possible for all of us. That is the achievement of each of the women in this book. They are all gutsy women, leaders with the courage to stand up to the status quo, ask hard questions, and get the job done.

Be inspired by ordinary women who have gone on the achieve the extraordinary. Hillary and Chelsea Clinton have collated ‘The Book of Gutsy Women’ , a phenomenal collection of essays about women who have made a lasting difference in the world. Listen to their interview about the book with Fearne Cotton on the Happy Place podcast and then delve a bit deeper into the stories of nine of these amazing women.

Part of our ‘Beyond the Book’ Series. View

One Of Us Is Lying

Breakfast Club with a twist

An award-winning young adult, mystery/suspense novel by author Karen M. McManus. One of Us Is Lying is the story of what happens when five students, with contrasting personalities walk into detention and only four walk out alive. Bronwyn the brain. Addy the beauty. Nate the criminal. Cooper the athlete and Simon the outcast. The victim, known for exposing everyone’s darkest secrets through a gossip app, has plenty of enemies, but who has the biggest motive? Everyone is a suspect, and everyone has something to hide and one of them is definitely lying. Pay close attention and you might solve this. Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.

Part of our ‘Beyond the Book’ Series. View

Lying is an inherent part of being human and we all do it, take a deeper look in our Why We Lie Pod View

Girl, Woman, Other

Dazzling and masterful

START HERE

(14 mins)

PODCASTS

(50 mins )

Kindle Paperwhite

(57 mins)

VIDEOS

(7 mins)

(16 mins)

HelloFresh meal plan offers

(4 mins)

ARTICLES

XTRA

Bernardine Evaristo’s Website

User Settings