The Fat Lady Sings by Jacqueline Roy - ISBN: 9780241482698
Paperback
Race, class, and mental health collide in 90s UK.

The Fat Lady Sings

A collection of rediscovered works celebrating Black Britain curated by Booker Prize-winner Bernardine Evaristo

$30.96

  • Paperback

    304 pages

  • Release Date

    4 May 2021

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Summary

A groundbreaking novel exploring the intersection between race, class and mental health in the UK.

It is the 1990s, and Gloria is living in a London psychiatric ward. She is unapologetically loud, audacious and eternally on the brink of bursting into song. After several months of uninterrupted routine, she is joined by another young black woman - Merle - who is full of silences and fear.

Unable to confide in their doctors, they agree to journal their pasts. Whispered into tape…

Book Details

ISBN-13:9780241482698
ISBN-10:0241482690
Author:Jacqueline Roy, Bernardine Evaristo
Publisher:Penguin Books Ltd
Imprint:Penguin Books Ltd
Format:Paperback
Number of Pages:304
Release Date:4 May 2021
Weight:213g
Dimensions:198mm x 129mm x 19mm
Series:Black Britain: Writing Back
What They're Saying

Critics Review

We need to hear stories like this today more than ever … Still as relevant today as it was in the 2000s

We need to hear stories like this today more than ever … Still as relevant today as it was in the 2000s * Bad Form *

About The Author

Jacqueline Roy

Jacqueline Roy is a dual-heritage author, born in London to a black Jamaican father and white British mother. After a love of art and stories was passed down to her by her family, she became increasingly aware of the absence of black figures in the books she devoured, and this fuelled her desire to write. In her teenage years she spent time in a psychiatric hospital, where she wrote as much as possible to retain a sense of identity; her novel The Fat Lady Sings is inspired by this experience of institutionalisation and the treatment of black people with regards to mental illness. She rediscovered a love of learning in her thirties after undertaking a Bachelors in English, and a Masters in Postcolonial Literatures. She then became a lecturer in English, specialising in Black Literature and Culture and Creative writing at Manchester Metropolitan University, where she worked full time for many years, and was a tutor on The Manchester Writing School’s M.A. programme. She has written six books for children, and edited her late father’s novel No Black Sparrows, published posthumously. A second novel for adults will be published in 2022. She now lives in Manchester.

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