Where do you get the ideas to create your characters and storylines?

Everywhere. I magpie little snippets of things from my own life, from friends, from newspapers, and then sit with them and try to expand on them, fit them into a story. It might be a name, or an image – The Queen of Bloody Everything came from a picture in my head of a grainy seventies Polaroid of two children in front of a Wendy House – or something on the TV – Joe All Alone was partly inspired by a news item about a homeless boy in my London borough of Peckham, who had been going into school every day despite sleeping rough. The teachers noticed he was dirty and alerted authorities in the end.

Who or what are the biggest influences in your writing?

Most of my influence comes from speechwriting – when I’m writing fiction I think largely in terms of rhetorical tricks, and word play, as I would do with a political speech, as well as working out how to keep my audience invested with ‘ethos’ and ‘logos’ and ‘move’ my audience using ‘pathos’. The writers I admire do this, whether deliberately or not, from David Almond for younger children, through E.Lockhart for teens, to Donna Tartt and Curtis Sittenfeld for adults.

What were your favourite books as a child, and why?

They were, and still are, funny books – Dr Seuss, Roald Dahl, James Thurber. Perhaps favourite of all was the Nicholas series by Goscinny and Sempe, which, being a precocious child, I read in French. This was an influence for my own new series The Worst Class in the World. Humour is hugely underrated as a literary device and yet children and adults will seek it out.

What do you think are the most difficult aspects of writing? How do you cope with them?

I don’t struggle to get the words down as know some do (although lockdown, and home schooling has made actually being able to get time on the computer difficult), but I do struggle with the isolation a writing life can demand. I am very thankful for the advent of social media, where I lurk even when I am writing. It’s like having an office water cooler – somewhere to air opinions or ask for a little help on a sentence.

Thank you for your continued support of Bath & NES Libraries. Why do you think public libraries are important?

Every Saturday morning my dad would drop me off in our town Corn Exchange, which doubled as a community centre and library, and leave me between the stacks of Pullein-Thompsons and Enid Blytons while he did the shopping. This is where I went on adventures, fought pirates, sided with smugglers, worked out what kind of person I wanted to be when I grew up. At the time, I thought that was ‘someone in a book’. Now, I write my own stories to play out.

Without libraries I wouldn’t be a writer – we didn’t have the money for the number of books I needed to read as a child. As it was, the children’s section ran out of reading material for me and I became one of few pre-teens allowed access to the adult floor (approved sci-fi only). Books offer children the world inside their pages, they offer opportunity and ambition, and only libraries can ensure that’s equally available to every child, not just those who can pay.

Find out more about Jo on her website: joannanadin.com

This interview was conducted in 2020

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What are your top 5 writing essentials?

Put simply – my laptop, some snacks, a drink, loud music (although sometimes silence), and several notebooks. The type of snacks I have vary depending on what time of day I write and how virtuous I am feeling. They can be anything from nuts to fruit to crisps or chocolates. The same goes for the drinks – green tea or Green Cola or, when I’m on holiday, wine. I like having something to make it feel like a treat when I am settling into a session.

Who or what are your biggest influences in writing?

This is such an interesting question. And to be honest I don’t now how to answer succinctly. Everyone I’ve ever read is probably the easiest way to sum it up. As a writer I am inspired and influenced all of the time, I think when you are a writer you do read books as a writer and that changes everything. I’m always learning. But it’s not just authors and poets who influence me, conversations with friends, disagreements, chance encounters, human behaviours, they all play a part in making my writing what it is.

What do you find most enjoyable about writing?

I LOVE the first write of a new draft where the story is unfolding and even though I’ve planned it, new and exciting things always emerge. I think for me, once I get going I do like the editing process and fixing issues and plot holes, but it’s definitely the part I find the hardest. Responding to (often brilliant) feedback takes time and sometimes I find it overwhelming, even though I know I always do find a solution in the end. I find taking time to process feedback is important too. I’ll have a mini strop that I haven’t nailed something and that it needs yet more input, but then I’ll go for a dog walk or chat to a friend, and I’ll snap out of my mood and knuckle down to work everything out. Editing is not as much fun as writing, but it is where the magic happens.

Where do you get the inspiration to create your characters?

From various places and people. I’m always observing! For Keep her Safe the daughter, Anya, was inspired by a painting in a hotel I was staying at in Wales. As soon as I saw the image I knew it was her. I do lots of writing exercises at the start of a novel to really get to know each character inside out and make them fully formed. People often ask me where I get their names from or if they are people I know and the answer is no. They are their own people, and always brand new!

What are you working on next?

My next novel is another psychological suspense book. It follows two friends after they’ve suffered a shared trauma, and looks at how their behaviours are affected. Here’s the blurb so far; it may very well change…

What if, after a shared traumatic event, one person vows to live by the rules, while the other goes out of her way to break them?

Her accident was their fault. After all, they broke the rules.

Lucy follows the rules, both big and small. But recently she is frustrated by how other people always get away with their rule breaking. She takes it upon herself to deliver karma to everyone who pushes the boundaries. At first it’s fun, but dishing out karma has consequences of its own. 

Emily does as she pleases. As far as she’s concerned life is too short. She parks on double yellow lines. She doesn’t give way. And she steals anything she likes the look of, until someone starts sending her messages telling her they know what she did and that she must own up.

With the differences in their values and beliefs widening, will the guilt of surviving an accident from their teenage years prove too much for their friendship? Or will they finally tell everyone the truth about what happened the day they skipped school and broke the rules?

Rules are there to be followed, and when they’re not, the consequences can last a lifetime.

For more information on Jen visit her website: http://jenfaulkner.co.uk/

This interview was conducted in 2022

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Sarah Surgey is a local children’s author who specialises in writing books that inspire growth and understanding.

Sarah’s book are available in 16 different languages and are used in collaboration with agencies including UNICEF.

What are your top 5 writing essentials?

Space. This is a luxury in such busy times but I really need space to clear my mind and focus.

Reading books. The more I read, the more I write. My creativity grows when I expand my mind through others imaginations.

Pen & pencil. I always write down my ideas on paper first as I feel a slight barrier when I type up what’s in my mind onto a screen. 

Friends. Bouncing ideas off of writer friends is the best inspiration!

Notes on my phone. I capture ideas as I go about my day.

Where do you get your inspiration from?

Reading books as a child or being read to, leaves the greatest impact on our adult world. I still relate back to the stories I was told and the places that they took me.

Can you tell us a little about your latest book ‘Jumping Hurdles’?

Jumping Hurdles is a book about a little girl who has just been diagnosed with Dyspraxia. It’s a big word for a small girl and all she really understands is that she struggles with her coordination. Sports day is coming and this new diagnosis brings a whole new load of worries about the day. Will she still be able to compete? But, as the day goes on, Bea learns that her Dyspraxia doesn’t stop her from taking part and having fun, she just learns to approach things differently! This is a story for children to look in through a new window and learn about Dyspraxia but also it’s a mirror for those who see themselves in it.

Who’s your favourite book character and why?

Poirot. He is an incredibly interesting character whose mind is unlike others. I have grown up reading and watching Poirot, and each timeframe in my life has allowed me to see him, and the stories around him, in many different lights.

What are you working on next?

I have a new children’s book coming out in September. EBBS & FLOWS looks at the different ‘up & down’ emotions that children can experience. 

It will release here in the UK and across Europe.

Find out more about Sarah and her books

Website: sarahsurgey.com

Instagram: sarahsurgeywriter

This interview was conducted in 2024

All image credits: Sarah Surgey

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Joanna, after a successful career in radio and TV scriptwriting, embarked on a captivating literary journey. Her first series of six novels revolve around a family-owned department store in Britain during the Second World War. Her latest series centres around ‘The Little Penguin bookshop’.

What are your top 5 writing essentials?

Peace and quiet – no music, ever –  copious amounts of tea,  AAA batteries for my overworked keyboard,  and family photos and drawings by my granddaughters, to remind me, if the writing’s not going well, of the really important things in life.

Where do you get your inspiration from?

I could be flippant and say ‘my delivery deadline’ but the truth is, I don’t really know. I only know that when I least expect it, a way for two unlikely characters to meet or a neat plot resolution will pop into my head. In terms of ideas for saga series, there are more than I have years left in me to write!

Can you tell us a little about your latest book ‘The Little Penguin Bookshop?

Carrie, my heroine, has always been a bookworm, and when she’s frustrated in her hope of joining the WAAF at the start of World War Two, seizes the chance to ‘do her bit’ by opening  a bookstall on her local station. Books – and the sixpenny Penguin paperbacks in particular,  she’s sure, will provide an escape for troops going off to fight, and a comfort to those left behind. She finds firm friends – and an enemy – on the station, and romance in the shape of an early customer, junior officer Mike. But the course of true love doesn’t run smooth, especially in wartime…

Who’s your favourite book character and why?

Jo in Little Women – possibly because she was the first literary character I encountered who shared my name! I was never as daring or outspoken as she was, but her way of disappearing  off to read while munching Russet apples (my favourite too) struck a chord with me.

What are you working on next?

I’m copy editing the next book in the series, called – what else? – ‘A New Chapter at The Little Penguin Bookshop’.   Through the horrors of the Blitz, it continues the drama for Carrie, her pilot brother Johnnie, her friends Penny and Bette, and of course, Carrie’s soldier boyfriend Mike, who’s sent on a new posting far away. It’s out in January next year and I do hope anyone who enjoyed ‘The Little Penguin Bookshop’ will want to read on…

Find out more about Jo and her new, or previous books, on her Facebook page: facebook.com/joannatoyewriter

She’s also on X: @joannatoyewriter

Her books are available on Amazon, in all bookshops, and of course, in libraries –  in print, e-book, audio and large print versions.

This interview was conducted in 2024

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Mendez, a Jamaican-British writer, authored the semi-autobiographical novel “Rainbow Milk” in 2020.

Scroll down for a recording of Mendez in conversation with Professor Rajani Naidoo.

Image Credit: Christa Holka

Has writing always been something you wanted to do, or did you explore other avenues before writing?

My first attempt at a degree was in automotive engineering (I lasted nine months), before I enrolled on a three-year acting course (on which I lasted three months). As a child, I would say I wanted to become a writer the way other children did astronauts, train drivers and firemen. I had (biblical) books while they had toys, and so I dreamt in the same way, but it was never something to take seriously. I was to become an elder within the Jehovah’s Witness community and hold down a humble paying job that would sustain myself, my wife and children until God’s Day of Judgement ended this current evil system and the need for money. The ministry was supposed to be my full-time preoccupation. As I grew out of that mindset, writing gradually replaced it, but I hadn’t set myself on a direct path, and felt I had to gain life experience and develop a new sense of self in the world. I always wrote for myself, but because so few black, male, queer, working-class writers were visible to me, it seemed a foolish thing to chase. Somehow, though, I never doubted I would one day become a published author. I worked in restaurants, wrote on my days off, and took opportunities to publish journalism, act in plays and narrate audiobooks when they came up.

What inspires you and gets the creativity flowing?

Deadlines.

Has your acting and voice work experience informed how you write and tell stories?

Norman, the Jamaican immigrant whose first-person narration opens Rainbow Milk, was created by means of acting and voice techniques. As a person who experienced sight loss, and who in the first place was a much bigger man physically than I am, it was important for me to understand what it would feel like for him living in a cramped house, looking after two very small, mobile children he can barely see. So I tried out life in his shoes, so to speak; I was living with a young family at the time, and their child’s toys and clothes were strewn around the house, so I blindfolded myself and tried to get around, and quickly became disoriented. In creating Norman’s voice, I did a lot of research to support the sort of man he might have been, in terms of his skill as a gardener, and his outlook as the youngest child in his family, for instance. I’m pretty good with accents and, coming from a Jamaican background myself, I was easily able to access his voice and way of expressing himself. I recorded an improvised monologue, the transcription of which became the first draft of his story.

What inspired you to write Rainbow Milk?

I began writing to trace the trajectory I underwent by leaving the community of Jehovah’s Witnesses – and the future of everlasting life I was taught would be my inheritance if I kept my faith – coming out as gay and becoming a sex worker. I was estranged from family and living in London, dealing with a sexual assault and a very uncertain future. I had no one to talk to, so I began to write personal essays to check in with myself and try to understand what had happened to me. It was from this material that I drew Rainbow Milk.

Rainbow Milk delves into issues of race, class, sexuality, freedom and religion across generations, time and cultures – how did you approach bringing all these elements together?

It happens as a matter of course because these are all qualities that are alive within me. My identity, as an Afro-Jamaican-British, queer, working-class descendant of the Windrush generation (and furthermore of enslaved people) who was raised within a religious cult, among white working-class people with whom neo-fascist parties were popular, is thoroughly intersectional, and so every event I experience, every thought in my head, everything I see, all my problematics and all responses to my presence, will be shaped by those factors.

What are your favourite books or authors?

I revere different books and authors at different times for different reasons, and at the moment, Toni Morrison stands out. I can’t think of another author who shot straight out of the block with such complex, challenging and affirming work as she did with The Bluest Eye, Sula and Song of Solomon.

Finally, what are you currently reading or any recommendations for our readers?

I’m very behind in my reading of contemporary fiction, but I’m just about to start Who They Was by Gabriel Krauze. It’s a semi-autobiographical account of a young man’s concurrent experiences as a gang member and a literature student. I’ve met him a couple of times now, and he is a special, unique and extraordinary human.

This interview was conducted in 2021

Rainbow Milk : Mendez in conversation with Professor Rajani Naidoo

This online event happened on 28th of October, 2021.

It was hosted by University of Bath Library and Bath and North East Somerset Council for Black History Month 2021.

Find out more about Mendez on their website: authormendez.com

The post Interview With Mendez appeared first on BaNES Virtual Library.

In October 2023 during Black History Month, Bath Preservation Trust curated an exhibition hosted at Bath Central Library, all about taking Cane Warriors from page to performance.

Bath Preservation Trust also co-hosted an event with State of Trust and Alex Wheatle exploring the project. You can find out more from Alex Wheatle, MBE, and Deborah Baddoo, MBE, Artistic Director of State of Trust using the buttons at the bottom of the page.

What is the background to this project?

Tacky’s War was a widespread fight for freedom by enslaved African people on the island of Jamaica in 1760. Led by the warrior Tacky, the rebellion was cleverly planned and coordinated, and it inspired many other rebellions and uprisings on the island as enslaved people fought to take back control of their own lives.

Cane Warriors by Alex Wheatle is a novel published in 2020. It tells the story of Tacky’s War through the eyes of a fictional character called Moa, a 14-year-old boy held in enslavement.  Alex wrote the book with the aim of encouraging young people to understand the history of the rebellion.

Alex contacted State of Trust to see if they would be interested in collaborating to turn the book into a dance and music performance. Cane Warriors is now a research and development project between State of Trust in collaboration with Beckford’s Tower (Bath Preservation Trust) and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

The creative team at State of Trust are pulling out certain moments and themes from the novel, and experimenting with them to develop a performance telling the story of the Cane Warriors through dance and music.

“Cane Warriors is one of the most important narratives I have ever written because it focuses on a part of world history that has been ignored and understated. It’s time that Tacky and his fellow Cane Warriors are remembered…”

– Alex Wheatle

What is the connection between Beckford’s Tower and Tacky’s War?

Beckford’s Tower in Bath was built in 1826-7 by William Beckford (1760-1844) and funded by the stolen labour of thousands of enslaved African people.

William Beckford’s father, Alderman Beckford (1709-1770), had used the family’s wealth to rise through British politics, and was twice Lord Mayor of London. He presented himself as a hero of liberty, and made a speech to King George III campaigning for the rights of British citizens.  At the same time, people on his sugar plantations in Jamaica were forced into slavery, stripped of their African names and subjected to violent exploitation.

In 1760, enslaved people on Alderman Beckford’s Esher plantation joined the fight for freedom that was Tacky’s Rebellion.

Beckford’s Tower will reopen later in 2024, thanks to the National Lottery Heritage Fund, with new museum interpretation, devised in consultation with cross-sections of the community. It will tell the story of the Beckford family’s complicity in the transatlantic slave trade and the Cane Warriors on Beckford plantations who fought against it.

Where can I find more information?

Find out more about Tacky’s War.

Find out more about Beckford’s Tower and State of Trust.

Find out more about the Beckford and Esher Plantation visit the Legacies of British Slavery website.

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Deborah Baddoo MBE is Artistic Director of State of Trust, a charity set up in 2014 to address social need, provide education and support community cohesion through arts activity and is also co-founder and Artistic Director of sister company State of Emergency, a well-established arts production company set up in 1986.

In October 2023 during Black History Month, Deborah visited Bath Central Library. She spoke to an audience about an exciting research and development project by State of Trust and The Beckford Tower Trust, with the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, to link renowned author, Alex Wheatle’s story of Cane Warriors and Tacky’s Rebellion with the history of Beckford Tower, Bath through dance. A performance of the outcome of the Cane Warriors project will be staged in 2024.

As well as welcoming Alex Wheatle, Deborah and colleagues from Bath Preservation Trust to Bath Central Library for an event, we hosted an exhibition reflecting Cane Warriors journey from page to performance through dance and music.

We’ve captured what Deborah spoke about on the day, to share from her perspective what the Cane Warriors project is all about.

Deborah, tell us about you and your work

I am co-founder and Artistic Director of the charity State of Trust, which is the sister company of State of Emergency, Ltd an arts production company, of which I am also co-founder and Artistic Director. We work nationally and internationally producing shows, events, projects and music.

We initially made a connection with Alex Wheatle a number of years ago with a project, working with young people animating the text of one of his earlier novels, Crongton Knights, through dance and music.

Amongst touring numerous dance  and theatre shows across the UK and internationally , we also established a national archive for black dance in the UK, working with partners including the National Resource Centre for Dance,  Black Cultural Archives, Leeds University Library and Birmingham Museums and Libraries.  This is the first archive for Black dance in the UK.

Our most recent socially engaged work includes work with young people and their wellbeing through arts, working in Somerset with indigenous and immigrant communities exploring with the “Where is home?” project about human connection through our histories and our stories. And earlier this year, we worked in Japan on an intergenerational project in a small community, bringing people together and produced a community performance involving all age groups, from children through to local elderly people. It’s all about facing issues and bringing communities together.

Tell us about Cane Warriors

Alex Wheatle first approached us about three years ago about the project. We tried to get Arts Council Funding, as this is where most dance organisations go to get funding but were unsuccessful, despite three attempts. Part of mefeels that projects that might bring up uncomfortable and challenging issues may not be selected funding.

We initially made a connection with Bath Preservation Trust following on from a project we produced last year called Coleridge Unbound. BPT were putting a funding bid into the Heritage Lottery Fund, and they were looking for a programme of activity that would help tell the true story of Beckford’s Tower. The history of Beckford Tower had great synergy with the Cane Warriors story, as one of the plantations mentioned in the novel was owned by the Beckford family, and so the connection was made, and we were delighted that they were able to include our collaboration in their bid.  As well as a series of workshops in schools and communities in Bath and Bristol and we’ve run a series of webinars.

Recently we’ve spent 9 days working on the Research and Development phase, creating the first iteration of the show.

“It has been an amazing experience- bringing the words to life, digging deep into the themes, into the characters, seeing what we envisaged through reading and analysing the book, all the threads and the characters coming to life.”

– Deborah Baddoo

Dancers have taken on board several characters from the novel, and we’ve really started to develop the characters and their backstories, bringing the ancestral voices of the characters of the past into the present, to face the audience. It’s been quite a moving and emotional experience, so far, for everyone.

What we want to do in the future is to expand what we have achieved through the research and development project into a longer, 15- 20 cast production- to tour nationally, but this is the first stage, a mini version ‘of the show with selected scenes from the novel.

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In October 2023, we welcomed Alex Wheatle to speak at Bath Central Library about his novel Cane Warriors.

Alex sadly passed away in 2025.

Cane Warriors is based on the true story of an eighteenth-century slave uprising, centring on the teenage Moa and the decisions he must make as a ‘cane warrior’ fighting for freedom from the Jamaican plantations.

“Cane Warriors is one of the most important narratives I have ever written because it focuses on a part of world history that has been ignored and understated. It’s time that Tacky and his fellow Cane Warriors are remembered…”

– Alex Wheatle

Alex has been working in partnership with State of Trust and The Beckford Tower Trust, with the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund on linking the story of Cane Warriors and Tacky’s Rebellion with the history of Beckford Tower, Bath through dance.

As well as welcoming Alex, we were also fortunate to host an exhibition reflecting on the journey taking Cane Warriors from page to performance through dance and music.

We reflect on the audience’s conversation with Alex Wheatle and explore some of what was discussed with the Q&A below. This content is an edited version of an audio recording of the event.

Alex, tell us about your inspiration for writing Cane Warriors?

The first seed was planted when I was serving time after the Brixton uprising of 1981. Brixton was very volatile in those days… tension built up not just over weeks and months but for several years and it all exploded in April 1981.

I found myself serving time in prison. My cellmate, a Rastafarian by the name of Simeon, was very well read. He had a little bookshelf in the cell that I shared with him. One of the books that he offered me to read was the Black Jacobins by the great Trinidadian writer CLR James.

This planted the first seed in my head when it came to Cane Warriors.  I had that in my mind for many years.

Later, when I was finally reunited with my father in Jamaica in 1987, we had this blazing row because I had discovered he was the person who placed me into care and so I wanted many answers from him. That first meeting was very tense but the next morning we were both civil and he asked where I would like to go on a day out.

So, we took a day trip to Firefly house where Noel Coward once resided, near Fort Haldane. I later discovered that this was once a British Garrison.  At the time, I didn’t link that this was one of the places the legendary Chief Tacky attacked; where he got his arsenal of weapons from to fight the English in his attempt to free the slaves.

When I was at school, I wasn’t really taught anything about Caribbean history. I was told that my ancestors were slaves with no context. So after I became an established author, I really wanted to write something about Jamaica and the history of slave revolt.

I picked this one out because my mother, a James Bond fan, grew up in Richmond which is in the St Mary parish. Ian Fleming only lived about 6 miles away on the North coast. She remembers him emerging from his compound Goldeneye that overlooked the Caribbean Sea.

I didn’t realise at the time, and my mother didn’t realise that where she lived and was raised was where the plantations were. The Frontier and Trinity plantations that Chief Tacky and other cane warriors descended on.

So that compelled me –

“OK I’ve got to write this story now … all the bits are falling into place… I must now complete the puzzle.”

– Alex Wheatle

Cane Warriors is fictional piece based on real events. What can you tell us about Cane Warriors and the value of storytelling vs fact?

For me, it was important that I write Cane Warriors, to make young people aware of what empire was all about and to educate people. We can watch news reels and we can be shown Edward Colston’s statue being pulled down, but I think we need the storytelling and the facts too.

We need young people to be aware of what happened. How slavery made so much money, who was involved in it, who suffered because of it and who benefited.

Before the pandemic, I went on tour in Germany (my books do well in Germany!). What impressed me was that school pupils were obliged to learn about the Holocaust as part of their curriculum. For me, Germany have accepted the horrors of the past much more readily than we do in the UK.

I’m really hoping that a project like Cane Warriors will prompt those people who decide what should be taught in schools to look at stories like this but also the whole experience of slavery in the Caribbean.

There are many things that we need to aware of and in my own way, I am writing about an untold history about my ancestors. I have been ill for the last year but when I am out and able, I hope to visit schools to talk about the book, to introduce them to this history which I feel has been denied to schoolchildren for so long.   

Stories come to us from the past. I felt I could attract more of a readership if I turned Cane Warriors into fiction, to dramatize it, rather than spending 5 or 6 years trying to make it completely correct.

“I have the bare facts, the basic structure of the story, let me build on that with my own fictional storytelling.”

– Alex Wheatle

By offering a moving, dramatic story, people are more likely to read it [more than if I wrote a textbook].  To see a story performed on stage really does help young people to see the context of a story, to dramatize it. This is what led me to contact Deborah and State of Trust.

Dance is a perfect way to tell a story. We hope to take the Cane Warriors performance around the country, to engage people with the storytelling through dance.

Alex, can we explore the past, family connections and your education?

My mother escaped a violent marriage in the early 1960s. She had five children with her husband in Jamaica. She left her children with her parents in Richmond, St Mary and came to the UK to make a new life for her, and supposedly eventually her children. She settled in Brixton in 1961, where she met my father who is also from Jamaica. They had a relationship, and I was a product of that relationship.

When my mother’s husband had discovered what had happened, my mother had to return to Jamaica and sort out her affairs and I was left with my father.  There wasn’t the help there is now for single parent families, so my father tried to raise me by himself.  In the end I was taken into care, and he also returned to Jamaica believing that I would be raised by decent people but that was not the case.

The way I was raised, I was always informed that I was inferior to anyone else because I was black. When I asked about my parents and family, I was told they were ‘back in the jungle’. I grew up with low esteem, feeling inferior to my white counterparts.

When I moved to Brixton, I started to learn about African culture and the civilisations. All that was denied to me growing up. That is why I campaign that when history is taught in our schools. It should not just be about Kings and Queens, it should be varied especially now in the UK we have so many children in schools whose parents and grandparents come from all over the globe.

I attended quite a number of schools, but I remember one history teacher- he was so excited about his role in life and that excitement was picked up by the kids.  He dramatized it, the way he presented the stories and I believe that is the way history should be taught. To enthuse the young people in front of you.

“Children should be able to see themselves in history. I never saw myself in history.”

– Alex Wheatle

If you want to hear more, watch this video of Alex Wheatle talking about Cane Warriors and his own life story: https://vimeo.com/859207894.

Use the buttons below to find out more from Deborah Baddoo MBE, Artistic Director of State of Trust and The Beckford Tower Trust, about a project established with the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, to link renowned author, Alex Wheatle’s story of Cane Warriors and Tacky’s Rebellion with the history of Beckford Tower, Bath through dance.

Keep up to date with the project:

https://www.stateoftrust.net/cane-warriors

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Watch the reading and fascinating interview here!

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What’s on your Christmas list this year?

Not surprisingly, lots of books! I’m very keen to get into the Frances Hardinge books I haven’t yet read. And maybe some new boots too, I get lots of ideas when walking.

What festive traditions did you grow up with?

I’m half Norwegian, so lots of stories about Nisse (the cheeky fairies and magic folks of norse law) and leaving out of sweets and treats to keep them happy, as well as smoked and preserved fish for Christmas breakfast.

What are you currently reading or any recommendations for our readers?

I’m reading The Whalebone Theatre (book for adults), which reminds me of Hilary Mckay’s The Skylark’s War (Middle grade), set in Cornwall during WW1, which I recommend strongly. I also just reread The Summer Book, by Tove Jansson (who wrote The Moomins), which, if you love islands, the sea and summer, captures the essence of all those things, magically.

How do you research and plan before beginning to write?

I read around the subject, and may have the skeleton of a plot; a sort of map, so I don’t get lost. But mostly my research is about being in the place the book will be set, and seeing what it feels like, and using sounds and images from that place and letting the story emerge from that.

What are you working on next?

I have just sent a bunch of ideas to my editor. I am not sure yet, but I imagine the sea will be a core feature, as will magic and folklore.

To learn more about Chris and his books please visit: https://christophervick12.wixsite.com/website

This interview was conducted in 2023.

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