Described as ‘brilliant, timely, funny, heartbreaking’ by Jojo Moyes, debut novel Queenie has already appeared on many must-read lists for 2019.
Join novelist Candice Carty-Williams in conversation with TV presenter June Sarpong as they talk life, love, race and family.
Queenie Jenkins is funny, intelligent, loving, and an occasional catastrophist. She has a loyal group of close friends called The Corgis, a job on the culture desk of a national newspaper, a busy social life and a close, if overbearing, Jamaican family in Brixton.
But on the brink of breaking up with her boyfriend, we meet Queenie in a spiral of self-destruction. She throws herself back into dating to the initial hilarity and then growing concern of the Corgis as they learn about the ways in which Queenie is being treated. Her professional life is on the slide and she just cannot seem to catch a break.
Can Queenie rise up again and become the hero of her own story?
Candice Carty-Williams is a marketer, author and
journalist based in London. Born in 1989, the result of an affair between a Jamaican cab driver and a Jamaican-Indian dyslexic receptionist, she worked in the media before moving into publishing aged 23.
In 2016, Carty-Williams created and launched the Guardian 4th Estate BAME Short Story Prize, is a Penguin Books WriteNow mentor, and also contributes regularly to Refinery29, BEAT Magazine, Guardian Guide and i-D.
June Sarpong was awarded an MBE on the Queen’s 2007 New Year honours list for her services to broadcasting and charity and has worked extensively with HRH Prince Charles for ten years as an ambassador for his charity, The Prince’s Trust. Sarpong’s 2017 book Diversify put the spotlight on groups who are often marginalised in our society, including women, ethnic minorities, disabled people and LGBTQ+ people.
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