Andrea Levy: ‘one of the most important literary voices of our time’
#8216;I started to realise what fiction could be. And I thought, wow! You can be ambitious, you can take on...
Winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2004
It is 1948, and England is recovering from a war. But at 21 Nevern Street, London, the conflict has only just begun. Queenie Bligh’s neighbours do not approve when she agrees to take in Jamaican lodgers, but Queenie doesn’t know when her husband will return, or if he will come back at all. What else can she do?
Gilbert Joseph was one of the several thousand Jamaican men who joined the RAF to fight against Hitler. Returning to England as a civilian he finds himself treated very differently. It’s desperation that makes him remember a wartime friendship with Queenie and knock at her door.
Gilbert’s wife Hortense, too, had longed to leave Jamaica and start a better life in England. But when she joins him she is shocked to find London shabby, decrepit, and far from the golden city of her dreams. Even Gilbert is not the man she thought he was…
"Winning the Prize felt like a recognition, from that very society, that massively boosted her confidence and widened her ambition "
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Rose Tremain
Gillian Slovo
Shirley Hazzard
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Andrea Levy
Joan London
Maggie Gee
Steve Davies
Shirley Hazzard
Anne Tyler
Audrey Niffenegger
Toni Morrison
Sarah May
Dinah Küng
Jhumpa Lahiri
Zoë Heller
Sarah Hall
Stella Duffy
Rupa Bajwa
Monica Ali
Rose Tremain
Gillian Slovo
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Andrea Levy
Barbara Kingsolver
Ruth Ozeki
Susanna Clarke
Maggie O'Farrell
Tayari Jones
Kamila Shamsie
Naomi Alderman
Lisa McInerney
Ali Smith
Eimear McBride
A.M. Homes
Madeline Miller
Téa Obreht
Barbara Kingsolver
Marilynne Robinson
Rose Tremain
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Lionel Shriver
Andrea Levy
Valerie Martin
Ann Patchett
Kate Grenville
Linda Grant
Suzanne Berne
Carol Shields
Anne Michaels
Helen Dunmore
Tune into host Vick Hope and a line-up of incredible guests on our weekly podcast full of unmissable book recommendations.
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