Black History Month talk by Diran Adebayo

Diran Adebayo (Law, 1986) is best known for his inventive, stylish tales of Afro-British lives. His debut novel, the picaresque 'Some Kind of Black', set among the sounds and slangs of the early nineties, was hailed as breaking new ground for the ‘London novel’, and won him numerous awards, including the Writers Guild of Great Britain’s New Writer of the Year Award, the 1996 Saga Prize, a Betty Trask Award, and The Authors’ Club’s ‘Best First Novel’ award. It was also long listed for the Booker Prize and is now a Virago Modern Classic. In 2022 he adapted the book for a BBC Radio 4 dramatization. Diran's second novel, the futuristic ‘neo-noir’ 'My Once Upon a Time' was also widely praised and solidified his reputation as a ground-breaker. Diran co-edited ‘New Writing 12‘, the British Council’s annual anthology of British and Commonwealth literature, and he has also written stories and scripts for television and radio, including the 2005 documentary ‘Out of Africa’ for BBC2, and for anthologies such as ‘OxTales’. As a critic, he’s written for most national newspapers and magazines such as ‘The New Statesman’, ‘The Literary Review’ and ‘index on Censorship’ and appeared as a guest on shows such as ‘Newsnight’, ‘The Culture Show’, ‘This Week’ and the ‘Today’ programme, discussing everything from literature and politics to popular culture.