Our five questions with Vanessa Walters
Ahead of our upcoming event at Penguin Random House with author of The Lagos Wife Vanessa Walters, and journalist and writer Pandora Sykes.
Take a read through of our mini-interview and then get your tickets to come and join us on the evening!
What inspires your creativity?
Places. I was born and raised in London but have since lived in five cities on four continents, and I'm endlessly fascinated by cultural differences and how environment shapes character.
Lagos was a complicated and compelling city. I'm still obsessed because it is such a heady combination of opportunity and adversity that it is teeming with stories, but all places are stories played out infinitely in the people you meet there, so place, place, place!
What is the one book you wish you had written?
Beloved by Toni Morrison because it was the first book for me that captured the tragedy and wonder of surviving transatlantic slavery, which is also the story of my ancestors via Jamaica. Although I've read many slave narratives by authors such as Olaudah Equiano and Frederick Douglass, Morrison was one of the first to use fiction and, in particular, magical realism to fill in the gaps that helped us understand in a way that memoir strangely cannot. This device has opened the door to many other writers to illuminate this history and for generations to see and feel seen. What a powerful thing it is to open a door for others.
What top tip do you have for anyone wanting to start writing?
Trust your natural storytelling instinct. How do you normally tell stories? How do you keep people engaged? What are the kinds of stories you like to tell people and why? That is the strongest place to start.
Do you listen to music while you write? And if so, what?
Sometimes yes! I'm currently loving classical or instrumental music that is wordless. But it depends on what I'm writing. Sometimes, I use painful ballads to put me in a certain mood; at other times, strident hip-hop.
What book should everyone read once in their lifetime?
It is probably the Bible because it relates to much of the English-speaking language and underpins Western philosophy. The Bible stories have become templates for storytelling and even the rhythm of storytelling. e.g. the Jeremiad sermons. Luckily, if you've been raised in the church, you've already read a lot of it, but even if you haven't, it is the one book above all others I would recommend, and feel free to skip the boring parts!
Credit: The Lagos Wife by Vanessa Walters is published by Hutchinson Heinemann on 29 February (£14.99, HBK, EBK Audio)
The Feminist Book Club will be hosting an evening with Vanessa Walters and Pandora Sykes on Monday 3 June, at Penguin Random House, full details and tickets can be purchased via the button below.