Varaidzo and Jacqueline Crooks in conversation - Traf Sq

Join us to celebrate the launch of Manny and the Baby, the spellbinding debut novel from Varaidzo.We'll be joined by Jacqueline Crooks, author of the critically acclaimed Fire Rush, for what promises to be a frank, fascinating and insightful conversation into Black British lives, now and in the past.

London, 1936. Two sisters are ready to take the city and the world by storm.Bath, 2012. Two young Black men are figuring out who they are, and who they want to become.Manny Powell is forthright, intellectual, and determined to make her mark on the London literary scene. Her younger sister, Rita ‘The Baby’, just wants to dance. Chasing their dreams across smoky Soho jazz clubs, they soon find themselves part of the burgeoning Black ambition movement, and must learn how to navigate it as women. As tensions rise, and fascism and war snap at their heels, Rita finds herself drawn to the mysterious mimic and trumpeter, Ezekiel Brown, from Jamaica, and the trio are faced with choices that will alter their lives forever.Itai has fled London to his late father’s flat in Bath. Listening to cassette tapes his father made, he realises there is a lot he doesn’t know about the man’s life — who is Rita? Why did his father record her life story? And might she hold the answers to Itai’s questions? Meanwhile, his developing friendship with Josh, a young athlete who moonlights as a dealer to fund his training, is on unsteady ground. As the country prepares for the 2012 Olympics, Josh is under increasing pressure from his bosses to find out just what the hell Itai is really doing in their city.Manny and the Baby is a character-driven debut novel, full of heart, about what it means to be Black and British, now and in the past.

Varaidzo is a writer and artist. Her short story ‘Bus Stop’ was shortlisted for the 4thWrite Prize 2018. She is a contributor to the best-selling anthology The Good Immigrant (Unbound, 2016) and the romance anthology Who’s Loving You (Trapeze, 2021). She was previously the Digital Editor at Wasafiri, and the Arts & Culture Editor at gal-dem.

Jacqueline Crooks was born in Jamaica and grew up in 70s and 80s Southall, part of London’s migrant community.She has an MA in Creative & Life Writing from Goldsmiths University. Her stories have been longlisted and shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction, Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize, Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, and BBC National Short Story Award. Named as a 2023 top ten debut author by the Guardian/The Observer for her novel, Fire Rush. She writes in Jamaican Nation Language.