About Black Women Speak Volumes
‘Women have always been 50% of the population but only occupy around 0.5% of recorded history’ (Bettany Hughes, 2016).
In these fraught times, it has never been more important to hear the hidden diverse voices around us – particularly those of older black women, whose life experiences are frequently compelling and fascinating.
Join us to celebrate the launch of two powerful new books which showcase these stories via thought-provoking fiction and non-fiction: Yvvette Edwards’ tragi-comic novel, good, good loving, and Challenging Britannia, where creative entrepreneur Joy Francis interviews seven ground-breaking older black women in the arts. They are joined by broadcaster and author Andi Oliver, and our chair for the evening, the writer Bernardine Evaristo.
With music from Dominique Le Gendre and film clips from the Joy Francis interviews with Paulette Randall, Valerie Bloom, Ingrid Pollard, Sharon Watson, Anni Domingo, Verna Wilkins and Dominique Le Gendre.
Other guests to be announced.
Part of Speaking Volumes ‘Women Speak Volumes Between Generations project funded The Heritage Fund and Coastal Carolina University.
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Venue and bar opening times
This is an in-person only event in the British Library Knowledge Centre.
The Knowledge Centre and bar open from 18.00.
Please arrive no later than 15 minutes before the start time of this event. If you have specific access requirements please email customer@bl.uk
Concessions
There are a range of concessions available. These include discounts for British Library Members, Young Persons (16–25s), and visitors on Universal/Pension Credit and free entry for carers.
Yvvette Edwards
Yvvette Edwards is a British author of Montserratian heritage.
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She has authored two novels: A Cupboard Full of Coats, selected as a Kirkus Best Book of the Year; and The Mother chosen by Bernardine Evaristo as one of her ‘Top 20 books by Black British womxn writers’ in 2020. Her work has been nominated for the Writers’ Guild award, Man Booker Prize, NAACP Image Award, Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, Hurston-Wright Legacy Award, International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Waverton Good Read Award. Her short story, Security, appears in New Daughters of Africa and Neue Töchter Afrikas. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Joy Francis
Joy Francis is the co-founder and executive director of Words of Colour.
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A former journalist, academic and editor, she is now a creative entrepreneur, writer, curator, and producer whose work champions racial equality and cultural inclusion in literature, publishing and the media. In 2000, she launched the UK’s first national newspaper internship programme for Black and Asian journalism students. More recently, she co-founded the Poets of Colour Incubator with Manchester Poetry Library and Manchester Metropolitan University, and Remembering What’s Forgotten, a hybrid programme and digital exhibition exploring mental health and racial justice. She is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Andi Oliver
Andi Oliver is known as a broadcaster, chef and author.
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Rising to fame in the 1980s with Neneh Cherry in their band Rip Rig and Panic, she moved into television and radio in the 1990s. In 2006 she presented The Truth About Food for the BBC and in 2007 she and Neneh Cherry hosted BBC2 cooking series, Neneh and Andi Dish It Up. Since then, Andi has been a regular on our screens, from shows such as Great British Menu and book programmes on Sky Arts to the two-part film The Caribbean with Andi and Miquita (2021), where she and her daughter embarked on a life changing journey to the islands of their heritage, Antigua & Barbuda, and then Barbados. Always in the kitchen and running restaurants alongside her media career, in 2023 Andi published her cookbook, The Pepperpot Diaries: Stories From My Caribbean Table.
Bernardine Evaristo
Bernardine Evaristo is President of the RSL and Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University.
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Her novel Girl, Woman, Other jointly won the Booker Prize in 2019 alongside Margaret Atwood's The Testaments, making her the first Black woman to win the Booker. In 2025, Evaristo was selected as the recipient of the Women's Prize Outstanding Contribution Award, a one-off literary honour to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Women's Prize for Fiction.
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