Candice Carty-Williams

Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams is my favourite debut of the year so far - I’m not surprised it was the subject of a bidding war. It tells the story of Queenie Jenkins, a 25-year-old Jamaican British woman living in London, who works at a national newspaper, where she’s constantly forced to compare herself to her white, middle-class peers. When she breaks up with her long-term boyfriend, she enters a period of anxiety, and awful relationships. I LOVE this book - it’s funny and poignant and youthful and feels so relevant. Reading Candice’s writing is like speaking to a friend - as was interviewing her. We talk about the shocking under-representation of BAME writers, battling confidence issues and how she writes in the middle of the night, and much, much more. Buy Queenie at https://www.waterstones.com/book/queenie/candice-carty-williams/9781409180050 Twitter: @aliceazania @CandiceC_W ‏ Instagram: @aliceazania @candicec_w Edited by Chelsey Moore