Bernardine Evaristo

Bernardine Anne Mobolaji Evaristo (b. 1959) was born on 28 May 1959 in Eltham, London, to an English mother and a Nigerian father. She is the fourth of eight children. She trained as an actress at Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance and co-founded Theatre of Black Women in 1982. She is Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University London.

Life and Career

Lara (1997) — a verse novel tracing a mixed-race family’s history from Nigeria and Brazil through Britain — was her debut. The Emperor’s Babe (2001) — a verse novel about a Black girl in Roman London in 211 AD — demonstrated her ability to reclaim British history for Black experience.

Blonde Roots (2008) — an alternate history in which Africans enslave Europeans — was her most provocative novel. Mr Loverman (2013) — about a seventy-four-year-old Antiguan-British man who has been hiding his homosexuality for decades — was her most emotionally direct.

Girl, Woman, Other (2019) — a novel without full stops, following twelve characters (mostly Black British women) whose lives connect across generations — won the Booker Prize, shared with Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments. Evaristo became the first Black woman and the first Black British person to win the prize. The novel’s formal innovation — flowing, punctuation-free prose that moves between consciousnesses — and its breadth of characterisation made it a landmark in British fiction.

She was appointed CBE in 2020 and became President of the Royal Society of Literature — the first person of colour to hold the position.

Major Works and Themes

Evaristo writes about Black British identity — its histories, its invisibilities, its multiplicities. Her fiction argues that Blackness in Britain is not a monolith but a vast, diverse, centuries-old experience that mainstream British culture has systematically ignored. The Emperor’s Babe — which imagines a Black girl in Roman London — is a provocation and a reclamation: it insists that Black people have been in Britain since the beginning, and that their erasure from the national narrative is an act of violence.

Her formal range is remarkable. She has written verse novels, prose novels, novels without punctuation, satirical inversions, and realist character studies. This restlessness — a refusal to repeat herself — gives her body of work an experimental energy that belies its accessibility.

Girl, Woman, Other works through polyphony — twelve voices, twelve perspectives, none subordinate to the others. The novel’s absence of full stops creates a flowing, continuous prose that moves between consciousnesses the way conversation moves between speakers: interrupting, overlapping, connecting.

Critical Reception and Legacy

The Booker Prize — shared with Atwood — was a landmark: Evaristo had been publishing for over twenty years, and the award recognised both the specific achievement of Girl, Woman, Other and the body of work that preceded it. Her appointment as President of the Royal Society of Literature signalled a broader shift in British literary culture.

Key Works

• Lara (1997, verse novel)
• The Emperor’s Babe (2001, verse novel)
• Blonde Roots (2008)
• Mr Loverman (2013)
• Girl, Woman, Other (2019) — Booker Prize

Collecting Evaristo

Lara (1997, Angela Royal Publishing) — her debut, published by a small press — is genuinely scarce. Fine copies bring $100–$300.

Girl, Woman, Other (2019, Hamish Hamilton, London) — the Booker winner — brings $30–$100 for UK first editions. Pre-Booker copies are preferred; post-prize printings are common.

The Emperor’s Babe (2001, Hamish Hamilton) and Mr Loverman (2013, Hamish Hamilton) bring $10–$30.

Evaristo signs at literary events and festivals. Her accessibility and the relatively modest prices of her earlier titles make a complete first-edition collection achievable.