Description
Step into the vividly colourful and wildly contrasting world of bestselling author, Kit De Waal, as she shares her captivating memoir. In conversation Iman Amrani will lead you on a journey through Kit De Waal’s childhood, growing up in a household that defied convention and expectation.
To say that Kit De Waal grew up in a house of opposites and extremes is an understatement. Christmas and birthdays were forbidden by her haphazard mother who worked as a cleaner, nurse and childminder, sometimes all at once, and believed the world would end in 1975. Meanwhile, her father splurged money on cars, suits and shoes fit for a prince.
Caught between three worlds – Irish, Caribbean and British – Kit and her siblings grew up in Birmingham during the 1960s, knew all the words to the best songs, caught sticklebacks in jam jars and braved hunger and hellfire until they could all escape.
Discover how Kit’s love for literature blossomed in spite of her unconventional upbringing and be inspired by her story of resilience, courage, and hope recorded in her new memoir, Without Warning and Only Sometimes.
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About the Author
Kit De Waal
Kit de Waal, born to an Irish mother and Caribbean father, was brought up among theIrish community of Birmingham in the ‘60s and ‘70s.
Her debut novel My Name Is Leon was an international bestseller, shortlisted for theCosta First Novel Award, longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize and won the KerryGroup Irish Novel of the Year Award for 2017. In 2022 it was adapted for television by the BBC.
Her second novel, The Trick to Time, was longlisted for the Women’s Prize and her young adult novel Becoming Dinah was shortlisted for the Carnegie CLIP Award 2020. A collection of short stories, Supporting Cast was published in 2020. An anthology of working-class memoir, Common People was crowdfunded and edited by Kit in 2019.
Kit founded her own TV production company, Portopia Productions and the Big Book Weekend, a free digital literary festival in 2020 and was named the FutureBook Person of the Year 2019.
Kit is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Professor and Writer in Residence at Leicester University. Her memoir Without Warning and Only Sometimes was published in August 2022.
About the Host
Iman Amrani
Iman Amrani is an ward-winning freelance journalist, producer and presenter. She has worked mostly on contemporary political and social documentaries or videos, as well as writing profiles and features. Iman has previously worked with The Guardian, Al Jazeera English, Vogue Portugal, The Independent, The New Statesman, Square Mile, Raconteur (business supplement distributed in The Times), Huffington Post and Copa90.
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